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Baptis 
Beliefs 


MAR    31  1977 


By  E.  Y.  MULLINS,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


VALLEY  FORGE 
JUDSON  PRESS 


Copyright,  1912,  by 
BAPTIST  WORLD  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 


Copyright,  1925,  by 

THE  JUDSON  PRESS 

Valley  Forge,  Pa. 

International  Standard  Book  No.  0-8170-0014-3 
Twelfth  Printing,   1974 


Printed  in  U.S.A. 


CONTENTS. 

Introduction   5 

The  Scriptures .10 

God 16 

Providence  20 

The  Fall  of  Man 24 

Election  26 

The  Mediator 29 

The  Holy  Spirit 35 

Regeneration   39 

Repentance    40 

Faith 41 

Justification  and  Adoption 45 

Sanctification 49 

The  Perseverance  of  the  Saints 53 

The  Kingdom  of  God 55 

The  Second  Coming  of  Christ 58 

The  Resurrection. 59 

The  Judgment 59 

The  Church 62 

Baptism 68  ) 

The  Lord's  Supper 70  ) 

The  Lord's  Day 71 

Liberty  of  Conscience 72 

Missions 73 

Education 74 

Social  Service 76 

Heaven  and  Hell. 77 

New  Hampshire  Declaration  of  Faith  . .  83 
pOVENANTS    93,  95 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

A  creed  is  like  a  crystal  with  many  angle? 
and  facets.  As  the  crystal  is  formed  in  obe- 
dience to  natural  law,  so  a  creed  is  formed  in 
obedience  to  a  spiritual  law.  Michael  Angelo 
chiseled  the  marble  into  the  heroic  figure  of 
Moses  as  the  expression  of  his  artistic  vision. 
The  great  creeds  are  the  chiseled  results  of 
spiritual  vision.  What  men  see  and  feel  they 
must  express.  Doctrinal  statements  are  given 
exact  form  for  the  same  reason  an  Indian 
makes  his  arrow  straight  and  sharp.  Both  are 
designed  as  weapons,  or  implements  to  achieve 
results. 

This  is  not  written  as  a  formal  creed.  If  so 
it  would  be  much  more  condensed.  A  very 
few  sentences  at  most  would  be  sufficient  for 
each  article.  But  there  are  a  numiber  of  ex- 
cellent Baptist  creeds  in  existence  already, 
and  what  is  proposed  here  is  not  the  setting  up 


6  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

of  another,  but  rather  a  restatement  and  inter- 
pretation for  the  general  reader  of  those  now 
in  existence  and  in  common  use  among  us. 
An  effort  is  made  to  avoid  technical  theological 
terms  as  far  as  possible  to  provide  the  simplest 
and  clearest  statement.  There  are,  of  course, 
many  topics  touched  upon  in  the  pages  which 
follow  where  the  paths  of  discussion  lead  in 
various  directions.  We  are  required  by  the 
limited  scope  of  our  undertaking,  however,  to 
abstain  from  too  elaborate  treatment  of  any 
subject.  A  general  survey  of  the  beliefs  com- 
monly held  by  Baptists  with  the  necessary 
cross  lines  to  mark  off  the  sub-divisions  of 
teaching  clearly  and  distinctly  is  all  we  can 
hope  to  accomplish  within  our  prescribed  lim- 
its. 

One  caution  is  needed  at  the  outset.  Creeds 
are  very  valuable  when  used  properly,  but, 
like  all  other  good  things,  dangerous  when 
used  otherwise.  'Creeds  are  the  natural  and 
normal  expression  of  the  religious  life.  The 
right  to  miake  them  is  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  the  divinely  given  right  to  think.  He 
who  would  forbid  men  to  make  creeds  expres- 
sive of  their  own  religious  life  in  the  light  of 
Bible  teaching,  would  therein  forbid  the  free 
exercise  of  human  freedom  to  think.  But  ob- 
serve this  point:  creeds  are  the  expression  of 
religious  life,  of  vital  or  living  experience. 
The  great  creeds  which  have  powerfully  in- 
fluenced the  life  of  mankind  have  all  arisen 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  7 

in  periods  of  great  religious  energy  and  deep 
religious  experience.  They  are  like  lava 
which  comes  hot  from  the  volcano.  An  inner 
power  expels  them.  The  lava  cools  afterward. 
The  creed  tends  to  become  stereotyped  and 
formal. 

There  is  another  truth  which  must  always 
be  kept  in  mind.  The  right  to  make  creeds 
is  simply  another  way  of  saying  that  we  have 
no  right  to  enforce  them  upon  men  against 
their  wills.  The  voluntary  principle  is  at  the 
heart  of  Christianity.  The  right  of  private 
judgment  in  religion  is  a  right  which  lies  at 
the  core  of  Christian  truth.  The  right  of  A 
to  make  a  creed  expressive  of  his  'Own  religious 
life  implies  the  right  of  B  to  make  his  own 
creed  as  well.  It  would  be  tyranny  to 
forbid  A  to  make  his  creed,  and  it  would 
be  equal  tyranny  to  compel  or  attempt 
to  compel  B  to  accept  the  creed  of  A.  If  A 
and  B  should  by  voluntary  co-operation  come 
to  see  alike  and  thus  adopt  the  same  creed 
there  would  be  no  tyranny.  And  if  A  and  B 
and  any  number  of  others  should  thus  set  forth 
their  beliefs  for  all  the  world  to  understand, 
this  would  be  simply  the  exercise  of  their  free- 
dom in  Christ.  And  this  is  precisely  the  way 
Baptist  creeds  and  confessions  of  faith  have 
arisen.  No  Baptist  creed  can  be  set  up  as  final 
and  authoritative  apart  from  the  Scriptures. 
They  are  all  subject  to  revision  when- 
ever an-d  wherever   other  Baptists  see  fit   to 


8  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

make  a  fresh  statement  of  their  doctrinal 
behefa.  Of  course,  Baptists  have  a  right 
to  the  peaceful  exercise  of  their  freedomi 
in  holding  and  maintaining  their  own  views 
as  to  Christian  truth.  In  this  the  group  or 
denomination  corresponds  to  the  individual  in 
the  matter  of  freedom.  Consequently  they 
themselves  must  judge  when  an  individual  or 
group  within  the  larger  body  has  departed 
from  the  common  view  sufficiently  to  warrant 
separation.  The  enforced  continuance  of  an 
individual  with  the  larger  group  after  radical 
and  hopeless  divergence  of  belief  has  arisen  is 
a  tyranny  equal  with  the  enforcement  of  the 
beliefs  of  the  group  upon  the  individual.  Re- 
ligious freedom,  in  other  words,  is  a  right  of 
the  group  as  well  as  of  the  individual.  The 
voluntary  principle  applies  equally  and  alike 
to  both.  It  is  on  this  principle  indeed  that 
most  of  the  denominations  since  the  Reforma- 
tion have  come  into  existence.  Denomina- 
tionalism  is  the  result  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment  in  religion.  A  Baptist  should  be 
the  last  man  in  the  worid  to  question  the  right 
of  a  Presbyterian,  Methodist  or  any  other,  to 
the  full  and  free  exercise  of  his  right  of  private 
judgment  in  religion.  If  denominationalism 
•ever  ceases  to  exist  and  all  Christians  become 
one  it  will  be  not  by  means  of  artificial  schemes 
of  union,  but  through  the  gradual  growth  of 
unity  of  view,  that  is,  through  the  operation  of 
Hhe  voluntary  principle.   7 


/ 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  9 

Another  peril  of  creeds  is  that  we  shall  mis- 
take the  shell  for  the  kernel,  the  form  for  the 
life.  Creeds  that  are  forged  when  religious 
life  is  at  white  heat  may  remain  after  the  fire 
has  gone  out.  The  creed  without  the  life  then 
becomes  a  chain  to  bind,  not  wings  on  which 
the  soul  may  fly.  The  one  and  only  remedy, 
then,  is  to  return  to  Christ  and  kindle  the 
flame  of  religion  once  more.  Creeds  are  useful 
only  so  long  as  they  are  the  normal  expression 
of  life  and  are  used  as  a  means  of  propagating 
life.  To  hold  a  creed  as  intellectually  true  mere- 
ly, without  the  inner  life  and  power,  is  not  a  re- 
ligious act  at  all.  The  New  Testament  knows 
nothing  whatever  of  any  such  holding  of 
creeds  and  we  would  do  well  to  reject  all  creeds 
and  go  straight  to  the  New  Testament  rather 
than  lapse  into  a  barren  intellectualism 
through  a  dead  creed.  The  danger  is  so  great 
that  this  barren  intellectualism  will  arise,  or 
that  creeds  will  be  employed  as  whips  to  coerce 
men  into  uniformity  of  belief  by  oarnally- 
minded  champions  of  the  faith,  that  many 
Baptists  exercise  their  freedom  by  having 
nothing  to  do  with  creeds,  or  rather  by  repu- 
diating all  of  them,  and  looking  to  the  Scrip- 
tures alone  for  their  doctrinal  beliefs.  Here, 
lagain,  they  are  strictly  within  their  rights 
as  freemen  in  Christ.  Nevertheless,  I  think 
creeds  perform  a  useful  function  in  edu- 
cating us  to  unity  of  faith  and  practice,  so 
long  as  they  are  not  worn  as  death  masks  for 


/ 


/ 


10  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

defunct  religion,  or  em!ployed  as  lashes  to 
chastise  others;  so  long  as  they  do  not  arrest 
life  and  growth — in  short,  creeds  help  raither 
than  hinder.  A  cre^  is  like  a  ladder.  On  it 
yo.u  may  climb  up  to  a  lofty  outlook,  a  purer 
spiritual  atmosphere,  or  you  may  climb  down 
to  the  low  platform  of  a  barren  orthodoxy. 

In  this  spirit  the  following  pages  are  writ- 
ten. The  author  has  no  sort  of  thought  that 
his  statement  is  the  best  that  can  be  made,  or 
in  any  sense  final.  Others  will  improve  on 
these  statements  and  we  shall  come  more  and 
more  to  a  clear  understanding  of  the  meaning 
of  the  Bible  and  of  the  religion  of  Christ. 

THE  SCRIPTURES. 

There  are  three  marks  which  in  a  general 
way  may  be  said  to  sum  up  the  position  of  the 
Scriptures  in  the  belief  of  Baptists.  The  first 
is  sufficiency.  The  Scriptures  give  us  enough 
truth  for  all  religious  purposes.  Nature  re- 
flects the  divine  attributes  to  a  certain  extent 
and,  according  to  Paul,  if  men  should  actually 
live  up  to  the  light  of  nature  within,  in  con- 
science, and  without,  in  the  universe,  they 
might  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  God,  so  that 
they  are  without  excuse.  For,  owing  to  their 
naturally  evil  bent,  men  refuse  to  follow  the 
light  of  nature  (Romans  1:19-21).  Taking 
men  as  they  are,  therefore,  on  account  of  sin, 
the  light  of  nature  is  insufficient.     A  revela- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  11 

tion  of  God  to  them  and  a  coming  of  God  into 
their  lives  are  the  only  means  for  their  re- 
demption. In  the  Scriptures  we  have  all  the 
truth  required  for  the  religious  life  of  men. 

Another  quality  of  the  Scriptures  which  fits 
them  to  serve  as  the  source  of  light  and  truth 
in  religion  is  certainty.  There  are  greater  or 
less  degrees  of  certainty  in  science  and  philoso- 
phy. Yet  scientific  and  philosophic  theories 
are  always  subject  to  revision.  Science  does 
attain  to  permanent  truth.  But  this  truth  of 
science  is  not  religious  truth  at  all,  save  in  the 
general  sense  that  all  truth  is  of  God.  The 
laws  of  nature,  like  the  law  of  gravitation,  or 
the  laws  of  motion,  or  the  laws  of  chemical 
affinity,  for  example,  have  no  direct  religious 
value  >at  all.  None  of  them  can  save  the  soul. 
Physical  science,  indeed,  ends  where  religion 
begins,  viz.,  at  the  realm  of  spirit  and  of  per- 
sonal fellowship  between  God  and  man.  Phy- 
sical science  cannot  prove  or  disprove  the  soul's 
immortality  or  the  existence  of  God.  Philos- 
ophy, in  like  manner,  fails  to  prove,  as  religion 
requires,  the  great  truths  of  human  life  and 
destiny.  Philosophy  gives  us  a  set  of  rational 
theories  of  the  world,  some  of  which  include  a 
belief  in  God,  and  some  of  which  do  not.  Each 
theory  or  world  view  of  philosophy  selects 
some  one  thing,  matter,  or  motion,  or  mind,  or 
will,  or  personality,  or  something  else,  and  de- 
duces all  the  rest  from  that.  But  so  long  as 
men  are  at  liberty  to  select  these  various  things 


12  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

on  which  to  build  their  philosophies  there  will 
be  as  many  kinds  of  philosophy  as  there  are 
preferences  among  men.  No  one  philosopher 
can  compel  the  others  to  select  his  own  starting 
point,  any  more  than  one  woman  can  require 
other  women  to  agree  with  her  taste  as  to  the 
most  beautiful  shade  of  silk  or  shape  of  hat. 
Hence  we  repeat,  philosophy  does  not  yield 
certainty  in  religion.  The  Bible  does.  The 
Bible  tells  us  how  to  find  God  and  by  follow- 
ing its  directions  we  actually  find  him.  God 
comes  into  our  life  and  we  know  beyond  a  per- 
adventure  that  the  Bible  speaks  to  us  truly  con- 
cerning God. 

The  third  quality  of  the  Scriptures  is  author- 
/  itativeness.  The  Scriptures  speak  with  author- 
ity, as  does  no  other  literature  in  the  world. 
This  authoritative  note  which  rings  so  clear  in 
the  Bible  is  not  due  to  anything  external  to 
itself.  No  court  made  it  authoritative  by  de- 
cree. No  ohurcfh  council  made  it  so  by  de- 
cision. No  pope  made  it  so  by  hurling 
anathemas  at  those  who  denied  it.  The  early 
church  councils  in  the  second,  third  and 
fourth  centuries  did  not  make  the  Bible  au- 
thoritative. They  simply  recognized  the 
authority  of  the  Book  itself.  The  canon  of 
Scripture  under  God  took  care  of  itself.  It 
was  inevitable  that  this  dynamic  and  mighty 
literature  would  come  together  in  a  vital  and 
organic  unity  since  it  was  all  created  by  one 
oommon  life  and  power  of  God. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  13 

Behind  this  sufficiency  and  authoritativo- 
ness  of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  is  their  inspiration.  Holy  men  of 
God  spoke  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy 
Spirit.  There  are  many  ways  of  explaining 
the  method  of  inspiration  which  men  have 
adopted.  We  cannot  here  discuss  them^  The 
fact  is  the  supreme  thing.  The  Bible  is  Grod's 
message  to  man  given  to  supply  the  needs  of 
his  religious  life.  When  we  find  that  message 
we  have  God's  truth  to  us  which  is  all  we  need 
for  religious  knowledge,  faith  and  obedience. 

The  process  of  inspiration  is  neces«;arily  more 
or  less  mysterious  and  obscure,  since  it  is  God's 
act  through  his  Spirit  stooping  to  the  plane  of 
the  human  intellect  and  experience  and  em- 
ploying these  as  channels  of  truth  to  other 
men.  Someone  has  compared  this  act  of  con- 
descension on  God's  part  to  the  slightly  stoop- 
ing statue  of  a  beautiful  woman  found  in  a 
European  art  collection.  By  no  process  of 
measurements  has  it  been  possible  to  -determine 
just  how  much  below  the  height  of  the  erect  fig- 
ure the  stooping  statue  measures.  In  like  man- 
ner we  are  without  any  power  to  determine 
precisely  how  God  adapts  himself  to  human 
capacity  in  the  process  of  inspiration.  The  re- 
sult, however,  we  possess  in  the  oracles  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  these  serve  all  our  practical  re- 
ligious needs  and  ends. 

The  Bible  is  the  book  of  religion.  Let  us 
keep  this  in  mind.     It  is  a  mistake  to  think 


14  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

of  it  as  a  text-book  on  science  or  any  other 
subject  except  religion.  In  conveying  religious 
truth  the  writers  of  the  Bible  could  only  gain 
a  hearing  for  their  inspired  religious  message 
by  employing  the  means  of  conveying  ideas  in 
common  use.  It  is  astonishing,  indeed,  how 
the  Bible  statements  conform  broadly  and  gen- 
erally to  the  teachings  of  science.  But  the 
biblical  writers  had  to  use  the  language  of  ap- 
pearances, of  things  as  they  looked  to  the  ordi- 
nary eye,  not  the  language  of  exact  science. 
Suppose  Job,  for  example,  had  been  inspired 
to  use  the  Newtonian  law  of  gravitation  in  his 
debate  with  his  friends,  would  it  have  helped 
out  the  argument?  Would  it  not  rather  have 
discredit'Od  him  more  than  ever? 

The  law  of  gravitation  as  stated  'by  exact 
science  is  that  bodies  attract  each  other  di- 
rectly as  the  mass  and  inversely  as  the  square 
of  the  distance.  Now  we  can  imagine  the 
Spirit  of  God  revealing  this  to  Job.  But  it 
implies  the  whole  of  modern  astronomy  with 
its  Copernican  view  of  the  universe.  It  came 
as  the  result  of  careful  and  painstaking  ex- 
periment and  calculation.  His  friends  would 
have  been  unconvinced  by  it  had  Job  employed 
it.  It  would  have  been  to  them  an  unknown 
tongue,  save  as  the  result  of  a  miracle  of  rev- 
elation to  them  also,  enabling  them  to  antici- 
pate the  researches  of  science  thousands  of 
years.  And  this  indicates  clearly  how  God  re- 
iuses  to  rob  man  of  his  own  proper  task  of  re- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  16 

search  and  discovery  by  miracles  of  revelation 
concerning  physical  matters.  The  Bible  waa 
not  meant  to  teach  us  '^how  the  heavens  go,  but 
how  to  go  to  Heaven".  Job  would  therefore 
probably  have  discredited  his  own  message  had 
ihe  sought  to  become  a  channel  for  the  com- 
munication of  a  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  as- 
tronomy in  the  scientific  sense. 

The  man  of  today  makes  a  similar  mistake 
when  he  stakes  the  integrity  and  authoritative- 
ness  of  the  Bible  on  its  exact  agreement  with 
the  Newtonian  law  of  gravitation  or  the  Ooper- 
nican  astronomy.  The  Bible  is  not  a  book  of 
science.     It  is  a  book  of  religion. 

The  Bible  must  be  interpreted.  But  we 
have  for  our  illumination  in  interpreting  the 
same  Spirit  who  inspired  it.  Everything  in 
the  Bible  is  not  equally  binding  on  us,  because 
wicked  men  speak,  Pharaoh,  Judas,  the  devil. 
We  must  get  Ged^s  message  by  interpreting 
under  the  Spirit^'S  guidance.  There  are  parables 
•and  allegories  and  symbols;  literal  and  high- 
ly picturesque  statements;  and  there  are  writ- 
ers with  varied  individualities  and  points  of 
view.  There  is  progress  from  less  to  more  of 
truth.  Ged  gave  the  truth  gradually.  In  all 
these  ways  the  necessity  for  interpretation  is 
upon  us.  It  is  a  great  and  high  responsibility, 
but  we  cannot  evade  it,  and  we  cannot  know 
what  God's  message  to  us  is  until  we  have 
interpreted  it  and  made  due  allowance  for  all 
the  facts  which  have  been  named.    But  w^en 


16  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

we  have  found  out  what  the  Bible  means  to 
eay  to  us  we  have  the  truth. 

We  may  sum  up  all  by  saying  the  Bible 
culminates  in  Christ.  He  is  the  crown  of  the 
whole.  All  doctrine  before  and  after  CJhrist 
must  be  seen  in  the  light  which  shines  from 
him  if  we  are  to  understand  it.  Christ,  then, 
is  God's  message  to  us  and  we  ore  to  imder- 
stand  the  whole  Bible  simply  and  solely  in  its 
relations  to  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  and 
Savior  of  the  world. 


2  Timothy  3:15-17;  Luke  16:29-31;  Ephesians  2:20; 
2  Peter  1:  19-21;  Romans  15:4;  Hebrews  1:1,  2;  Psalms 
19:7,  8;  Romans  1:19-21;  1  John  5:9;  Romans  3:1,2; 
John  16:13;   15:26,  27;  14:25,   26;   1  Corinthians  2:4,  10, 

11,  12,  13,  14,  15,  16;  1  John  2:20,  27;  John  «:45;  1 
Corinthians  14:26;  2  Peter  3:16;  Psalm  119:130;  Isaiah 
8:20;   Acts  15:15;   John  5:39;   1  CoHnthians  14:6,  9,  11, 

12,  24,  28;  Colosaiana  3:16;  Matt)hew  22:29;  Acta  28:23. 


GOD. 

It  is  impossible  to  define  God,  because  he  is 
more  and  greater  than  all  definitions.  This 
does  not  mean  that  we  must  remain  ignorant 
of  God's  character.  For  we  do  possess  most 
real  knowledge  of  God  through  tho  revelation 
he  has  given  us  in  grace  and  power  in  our 
hearts  and  lives.  There  are  certain  qualities 
or  attributes  which  we  ascribe  to  God  in  con- 
sequence of  his  revelations  in  nature  and  in 
experience  and  in  Scripture.  These  must  not 
be  taken  as  if  they  were  exhaustive  statemients 
of  what  God  is  either  himself  or  in  his  mani- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  17 

festations.  First,  we  say  God  is  a  spiritual 
being.  Jesus  said  to  the  woman  at  the  well, 
*'God  is  spirit,  and  they  that  worship  him 
must  worship  him'  in  spirit  and  in  truth."  This 
is,  we  may  say,  the  first  truth  in  spiritual  reli- 
gion. God  has  not  a  visible  outward  form  or 
figure.    He  is  pure  spirit. 

It  is  curious  how  many  people  fail  to  grasp 
the  idea  of  God's  spirituality  and  cling  to  the 
pictures  of  him  learned  in  the  nursery.  The 
writer  has  met  several  adults,  among  them 
students  in  theology,  who  had  difficulty  in 
overcoming  the  physical  way  of  representing 
God.  Some  think  of  him  as  a  very  wise  old 
man  with  gray  hair  and  beard  sitting  above 
the  world  on  a  great  throne,  or  else  they  cling 
to  other  more  or  less  vague  and  misty  pictures 
of  God  under  various  human  forms.  It  is  very 
necessary  that  we  grasp  the  idea  of  God's 
spirituality  and  nearness,  his  omnipresence  and 
power  in  our  lives  if  we  are  to  walk  with  him 
as  we  should. 

Again  God  is  one.  There  are  not  many 
gods,  but  only  the  one  true  God.  The  doc- 
trine of  many  gods  is  polytheism  and  against 
it  the  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  poured 
out  their  inspired  and  burning  eloquence.  The 
Old  Testament  is  the  record  of  how  God  trained 
Israel  to  the  thought  of  a  pure  monotheism, 
that  is,  to  the  belief  in  one  holy  and  spiritual 
God.  The  unity  of  God  is  another  of  the  first 
truths  of  religion. 

a— Oct.  21. 


18  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

God  is  personal.  Some  modern  theories  seek 
to  enforce  the  idea  of  an  impersonal  Grod,  or, 
in  the  current  expression,  an  impersonal 
''world-ground'\  This  thought  of  an  imper- 
sonal ground  of  the  world  grows  out  of  the 
thought  of  substance  which  science  uses  in  its 
dealings  with  nature.  It  is  sought  to  reduce 
all  things  to  one  physical  principle  in  order 
to  explain  scientifically  everything  that  exists. 
But  the  impersonal  substance  is  not  God.  Re- 
ligion teaches,  -and  most  of  all  Christianity 
teaches,  that  God  is  above  as  well  as  in  nature ; 
that  nature  and  substance,  while  the  expres- 
sion of  God's  wisdom  and  power  are  not  God 
himself.  Religion  dies  when  God  ceases  to  be 
personal  in  the  thoughts  of  men,  because  every- 
thing in  religion  requires  a  personal  God.  It 
is  not  surprising,  then,  that  when  men  forsake 
the  idea  of  a  personal  God  they  lapse  into 
polytheism  and  invent  many  gods,  or  else  they 
adopt  the  philosophy  of  pantheism  instead  of 
religion,  and  remain  content  with  that. 

Again,  God  is  holy.  The  moral  law  13 
grounded  in  God.  He  is  its  author  and  is 
himself  clothed  with  all  moral  perfections. 

God  is  infinite.  This  means  that  God  is 
free  of  all  imperfections.  Our  minds  cannot 
grasp  the  infinite  fully.  The  word  is  nega- 
tive in  the  sense  that  it  seeks  to  express  the 
thought  that  God  has  no  limitations  of  any 
kind.     God,   then,  is  infinite  in   all  his  at- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  19 

tributes — wisdom,  holiness,  love,  power  and  all 
others  which  may  be  named. 

The  Scriptures  also  reveal  to  us  that  God 
manifests  himself  to  men  not  only  as  one  but 
as  triune.  In  the  Old  Testament  God's  Spirit 
appears  in  many  forms  of  activity,  although 
the  Trinity  does  not  appear  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  a  fully  developed  truth  as  in  the  New. 
The  New  Testament  clearly  shows  that  there 
are  three  forms  of  God's  personal  manifesta- 
tion in  the  world,  called  Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Spirit.  This  does  not  mean  that  God  shows 
himself  as  first  one,  then  another  of  these.  They 
are  distinct  in  their  personal  activities.  Of 
course,  w'hen  we  call  them  persons  we 
do  not  use  the  word  in  its  ordinary- 
sense.  A  human  person  is  a  separate  and  dis- 
tioct  individual  and  if  we  use  the  word  in 
this  meaning  referring  to  the  Trinity  we  would 
imply  three  gods,  which  would  be  polytheism. 
Yet  personality  is  the  most  fitting  word  we 
can  find  to  express  the  truth  as  to  the  Trinity. 

The  Bible  does  not  explain  the  TrinHy.  It 
simply  gives  us  the  facts.  Theologians  and 
philosophers  have  tried  hard  to  give  sin  intel- 
lectual expression  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity. None  of  them  have  succeeded  fully.  Some 
of  them  have  been  very  elaborate  and  have 
attempted  entirely  too  much  perhaps.  Never- 
theless we  must  accord  them  the  right  to  make 
these  attempts.  It  will  probably  be  found  in 
the  end,  however,  that  the  briefer  the  defini- 


20  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

tion  of  the  Trinity  the  better  for  practical  pur- 
poses. God  is  revealed  to  us  as  Father,  Son 
and  Holy  Spirit.  These  have  personal  qual- 
ities. Yet  God  is  one.  This  is  the  New  Tes- 
tament teaching.  Beyond  this  we  tend  toward 
speculation. 

Exodus  15:11;  Psalm  147:5;  Psalm  83:18;  Isaiah 
6:3;  1  Peter  1:15,  16;  Mark  12:30;  Matthew  10:37; 
Matthew  28:  19;  1  Corinthians  12:4-6;  1  John  5:7; 
John  10:30;  John  5:17;  John  4:24;  Ephesians  2:18; 
2  Corinthians  13:14. 

PROVIDENCE. 

God  who  created  the  world  upholds  it.  In 
the  ongoing  of  the  world  there  are  no  surprises 
to  God.  He  foresees  and  foreknows  all  things 
whatsoever  which  may  or  can  or  do  take 
place.  God  is  above  the  world  but  he  is  also 
in  it.  He  does  not  hold  himself  aloof  from  his 
universe  and  watch  its  movements  as  if  it 
were  merely  a  machine.  He  is  present  in  it 
everywhere  at  all  times.  He  is  in  and  through 
and  above  all  things. 

God's  purpose  includes  all  things  which 
come  to  pass.  Some  things,  however,  God  sim- 
ply permits.  God  is  not  the  author  of  sin. 
It  entered  the  world  not  by  his  approval  but 
only  by  his  permission.  Yet  he  overrules  it. 
Somehow  the  possibility  of  sin  was  connected 
with  the  freedom  of  God's  intelligent  creatures. 
It  is  this  freedom  which  lifts  men  above  the 
brutes.     Yet  it  was  this  same  freedom  which 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  21 

made  possible  a  sinful  choice.  That  sinful 
choice  in  like  manner  made  possible  a  display 
of  God's  love  and  grace  which  could  not  have 
appeared  in  a  non-sinning  universe.  This  does 
not  condone  sin;  it  simply  indicates  how  God. 
transformed  it  into  an  occasion  for  boundless 
condescension  and  love. 

Most  of  the  difficulties  about  God's  grace 
and  human  freedom  are  due  to  the  prevalent 
way  of  thinking  about  grace  and  its  action 
upon  us.  Grace  comes  from  without,  but  it 
acts  within  us.  It  flows  in  as  it  were  and  works 
itself  out  through  our  minds,  consciences  and 
wills.  It  moves  us  freely.  It  inclines  us  to  act 
voluntarily  as  God  wills.  It  is  not  like  a  crow- 
bar resting  on  a  fulcrum  by  means  of  which  a 
Stone  is  moved.  It  is  rather  like  water  in  a 
millrace  filling  the  receptacles  on  the  rim  and 
turning  the  wheel.  Our  faculties  are  the  re- 
ceptacles on  the  wheel  of  our  personality.  Or 
again,  grace  is  like  the  sap  in  a  tree,  and  our 
conduct  is  like  the  fruit.  The  fruit  is  pro- 
duced from'  within.  Grace  is  not  mechanical, 
but  personal  in  its  action.  This  distinction 
explains  hardshellism.  Preaching,  persuasion, 
missions,  evangelism,  are  all  based  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  grace  is  not  a  mechanical  but  a  per- 
sonal force.  If  grace  were  a  crowbar  and  men 
stones,  hardshellism  would  be  right.  It  is  the 
crowbar  conception  of  grace  that  destroys  mis- 
sions. Grace  works  with  those  means  which 
influence  the  free  choices  of  men,  persuasion. 


22  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

argument,  appeal,  warning,  exhortation,  etc. 
The  whole  New  Testament  conception  of 
preaching  grows  out  of  the  fact  that  grace  is 
a  personal,  not  a  mechfinical,  force.  Ideas, 
feelings,  volitions  in  the  preacher  through 
God's  Spirit,  awaken  ideas,  feelings,  volitions 
in  the  sinner.  This  is  the  method  of  grace. 
A  bulb  may  have  sleeping  in  it  the  potentiali- 
ties of  a  beautiful  flower.  Something  from 
without  must  enter  it,  however,  before  it  can 
ever  become  a  flower,  something  it  does  not 
possess,  viz.,  the  sunlight  and  its  warmth. 
Transferring  the  bulb  from  one  basket  to  an- 
other would  not  bring  out  the  flower.  The 
Spirit  of  God  must  enter  and  change  the  sin- 
ner's heart  before  the  slumbering  possibilities 
can  be  brought  forth.  It  is  the  unfolding  of 
his  personality  into  moral  and  spiritual  life 
which  is  the  aim  of  the  Gospel.  This  can  only 
be  accomplished  as  the  living  personality  of 
one  m'an  becomes  in  some  way  the  medium 
through  which  the  truth  and  grace  and  power 
of  God  enters  the  life  of  another.  At  least 
this  is  God's  ordinary  method,  whatever  may 
be  true  in  exceptional  cases  like  that  of  Saul 
of  Tarsus  and  others. 

God  made  man  free  and  leaves  him  free. 
God  never  overrides  the  will  of  man.  In  his 
action  upon  man's  will  he  always  respects  that 
will.  "Irresistible  grace"  is  a  phrase  we  some- 
times hear.  But  properly  understood  it  never 
means  irresistible  in  the  physical  sense,  as  if 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  23 

God  dealt  with  us  as  a  parent  might  with  a 
crying  and  disobedient  and  rebellious  child  in 
lifting  it  bodily  and  carrying  it  where  the 
child  refused  to  go.  God  will  have  us  come 
to  him  freely.  Grace  always  persuades  and 
convinces  and  makes  us  willing  to  come,  how- 
ever mysterious  and  mighty  it  may  be  in  ita 
action  upon  our  hearts. 

The  crown  of  God's  creation  is  man.  AH 
the  previous  stages  led  up  to  this  being  who 
was  made  in  the  image  and  likeness  of  God. 
This  is  the  chief  interest  of  religion  in  tho 
wonder  and  mystery  of  creation.  The  ques- 
tion of  how  God  created  the  world,  or  how 
long  it  has  been  since  the  creation  of  man,  are 
questions  Which  are  not  fully  answered  in  the 
Scriptures.  Science  is  at  work  on  them  and 
may  or  may  not  succeed  in  answering  these 
questions  fully.  The  book  of  Genesis  contains 
light  on  some  points,  but  not  all.  One  thing 
is  clear,  however,  and  that  is  that  God  made 
man  in  his  own  image  and  that  man  sinned. 
Another  point  is  clear  and  that  is  that  the 
redemption  of  sinful  man  is  the  center  of 
God's  providential  care  of  the  world.  If  we 
would  understand  providence  then  we  must 
study  what  God  has  done  to  redeem  the  world. 


Genesis,  chapters  1  and  2;  John  1:2,3;  Romans  1:20; 
Hebrews  1:2;  Job  26:13;  Oolosslans  1:16;  Romans 
2:14-16;  Isaiah  46:10,  11;  Psalm  135:6;  Ephesians  1:11; 
Acts  2:23,  24;  Acts  7:1-60;  Acts  14:  16-18;  Acts  17:24- 
28. 


24  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

THE  FALL  OF  MAN. 

The  meaning  of  the  fall  of  man  is  that 
man  sinned  against  God.  Sin  is  not  human 
infirmity  mierely,  nor  is  it  a  mistake  merely, 
nor  is  it  ignorance  merely.  Sin,  again,  is  not 
merely  a  step  upward  in  man's  evolution  to- 
wards his  highest  development.  The  fall  was  a 
downward  and  not  an  upward  movement  of 
man.  It  involved  guilt  and  transgression.  It 
gave  rise  to  the  need  of  pardon,  of  grace  and 
redemption.  Man  came  under  condenmation 
as  the  result  of  his  fall.  The  fall,  then,  means 
that  man  was  really  man  when  he  fell  and  not 
merely  a  creature  who  was  on  his  way  towards 
becoming  man,  a  candidate,  as  it  were,  for 
manhood.  Of  course,  we  are  not  to  suppose 
he  possessed  all  that  has  come  to  man  in  man's 
struggle,  nor  all  the  experience  or  knowledge 
which  history  has  'brought.  Man  was  not 
made  omniscient,  nor  even  learned  in  the  mod- 
ern sense.  He  was  made  free  from  sin  and 
condemnation,  and  through  the  temptation  of 
Satan  he  fell. 

In  consequence  of  the  fall  of  man  sin  has 
become  hereditary.  No  teaching  of  science 
is  clearer  today  than  the  hereditary  transmis- 
sion of  traits  of  character.  The  Old  Testament 
gave  religious  recognition  to  the  principle  long 
before  science  discovered  and  demonstrated  it. 
As  a  result  of  this  sinful  heredity  of  race,  all 
men  actually  sin  when  they  acquire  capacity 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  25 

for  sinning.  We  believe  that  infants  dying 
in  infancy  are  saved  not  because  they  have  no 
share  in  the  operation  of  the  hereditary  ten- 
dency to  sin,  but  because  Christ  atoned  for  all 
the  race,  and  som/ehow  children  dying  in  in- 
fancy, before  actual  sin,  share  in  the  blessing 
of  that  atonement.  The  Scriptures  really  say 
little  of  the  salvation  of  infants  dying  in  in- 
fancy, but  they  say  enough  to  warrant  firm  be- 
lief in  that  salvation.  The  grace  of  God  deals 
with  them  in  a  special  nuanner,  no  doubt,  aa 
we  mtust  hold  if  we  believe  in  hereditary  sin 
and  at  the  same  time  in  the  salvation  of  infanta 
dying  in  infancy. 

No  one  is  or  can  be  saved  without  repentance 
and  faith,  who  is  capable  of  exercising  repent- 
ance  and  faith.  This  is  the  clear  teaching  of 
the  Scriptures.  Hereditary  and  actual  sin  ren- 
der men  not  only  corrupt  but  also  guilty  andi 
condemned  until  they  are  justified  by  faith  in 
Jesus  Ohrist. 

All  men  are  not  equally  sinful,  of  course, 
and  no  man  is  as  bad  as  he  can  be.  But  all 
man's  faculties  and  powers  are  affected  by  the 
operation  of  sin  in  his  nature,  and  all  are 
equally  incapable  of  saving  themselves.  All 
are  dependent  alike  upon  God's  grace  for  sal- 
vation. 

Genesis    1:31;    Genesis    2:16,    17;    Genesis    3:12,    IS; 

Genesis  3:6-24;  Romans  3:23;  Genesis  6:5;  Titus  1:15; 
Romans  3:10-18;  Romans  8:7;  Romans  1:18-32;  Romans 
5:12-21;  Galatians  5:16-21;  Isaiah  53:6;  Epliesians 
2:1-3;  Ezeklel  18:19,20. 


26  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

ELECTION. 

In  consequence  of  their  sinful  nature  and 
ihabitual  choice  of  evil,  men,  if  left  to  them- 
selves, would  inevitably  refuse  salvation.  A 
<jrospel,  or  good  news  of  salvation,  announced 
to  a  race  of  sinful  men  and  left  without  the 
active  energy  of  God's  grace  to  make  it  effec- 
tual, would  surely  come  to  naught.  There  are 
two  <?hoices  necessary  in  a  man's  salvation: 
God's  choice  of  the  man  and  man's  choice  of 
God.  Apart  from  infants  and  others  incapa- 
ble of  responding  to  the  Gospel  call,  salvation 
never  comes  otherwise  than  through  God's 
choice  of  man  and  man's  choice  of  God.  But 
God's  choice  of  man  is  prior  to  man's  choice 
of  God,  since  God  is  infinite  in  wisdom  and 
knowledge,  and  since  he  will  not  make  the 
success  of  his  Kingdom  dependent  on  the  con- 
tingent choices  of  men.  God  does  not  fling 
out  the  possibility  of  salvation  among  men, 
say,  like  a  golden  apple,  and  leave  it  for 
men  to  use  or  not  use  as  they  will.  He 
keeps  his  own  hands  on  the  reins  of  his 
government.  Yet  in  doing  so  he  must 
needs  observe  his  own ,  law  of  freedom  as 
written  in  man's  moral  constitution.  This  is 
the  problemi  and  task  which  calls  for  infinite 
wisdom,  love  and  power:  To, save  man  and  yet 
leave  man  free  to  choose  salvation.  Free-will 
in  man  is  as  fundamental  a  truth  as  any  other 
in  tbifiL  Gospel  and  must  never  be  canceled  in 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  27 

our  doctrinal  statements.  Man  would  not  be 
man  without  it  and  God  never  robs  us  of  our 
true  moral  manhood  in  saving  us. 

In  dealing  with  a  race  of  beings  who,  if 
left  to  themselves,  would  inevitably  choose 
evil,  -and  yet  whose  freedom  must  be  respected, 
how  else  could  God  act  in  saving  them  than  as 
he  has  acted,  viz.,  in  not  only  sending  his  Son 
as  Mediator  and  Redeemer,  but  also  in  devis- 
ing means  and  instrumentalities  for  persuading 
men  to  believe  and  accept  the  Gospel.  If  he 
should  pick  them;  up  bodily,  as  it  were,  and 
force  salvation  upon  them  against  their  wills, 
he  would  do  an  immoral  thing.  Indeed,  such 
a  method  is  inconceivable  with  free  beings. 
Yet  if  God  holds  aloof  from  men  and  merely 
awaits  their  choice  of  him,  none  would  choose 
him.  The  Gospel,  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  church, 
the  preacher,  the  message  or  sermon,  and  all 
other  means  of  persuading  and  inclining  men 
to  believe  are,  therefore,  necessary  in  order  that 
God  may  save,  first,  because  he  has  chosen  man, 
and  second,  through  man's  choice  of  God. 
The  decree  of  salvation  must  be  looked  at  as  a 
whole  to  understand  it.  'Some  have  looked  at  y- 
God's  choice  alone  and  ignored  the  m'eans  and 
the  necessary  <;hoice  on  man's  part.  Others 
have  ignored  God's  choice  and  have  made  all 
depend  on  the  means  and  man's  choice.  But 
you  cannot  split  up  the  decree  of  God  into 
little  bits  and  understand  it  by  looking  at  the 
pieces.    You  must  view  it  as  a  whole. 


?^  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

Election  is  sometimes  said  to  indicate  ar- 
bitrariness and  partiality  in  God.  But  this 
is  an  error.  God  wills  that  all  men  should  be 
saved  and  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
(1  Timothy  2:4),  as  Paul  assured  us.  Cer- 
tainly Jesus  died  for  the  whole  world  (John 
3:16).  Election  is  not  an  arbitrary  choice  on 
Gfod's  part.  Infinite  love  is  behind  his  every 
act.  He  'adopts  the  only  method  by 
which  the  salvation  of  any  would  be  possible, 
and  no  doubt  he  yearns  for  and  denres  that 
as  rapidly  as  possible  all  men  should  hear  and 
know  the  truth  and  obey  it.  This  is  why  he 
chooses  men  not  merely  to  salvation  but 
to  service.  Every  saved  man  or  woman  or 
child  is  intended  by  God  as  a  messenger  and 
worker  to  make  known  his  grace  and  power 
to  others. 

Election  leaves  no  room  for  boasting  or  pride 
or  sense  of  merit  on  our  part,  but  it  does,  when 
truly  understood,  fill  us  with  humility  and  a 
senso  of  the  manifold  wisdom  -of  God  in  dealing 
with  his  free  creatures.  And  it  should  inspire 
us  with  a  holy  sympathy  with  God  in  his  ef- 
fort to  save  men  who  are  disobedient  and  re- 
bellious and  carnal  in  their  choices.  Wit^ 
God  we  may,  then,  ^tiently  co-operate  in. 
persuading  men  to  believe  the  Gospel,  In  Jhe 
full  assurance  that  God's  grace  will  prove  equal 
to  the  great  task  of  leading  even  the  rebellious 
to  forsake  their  sins  and  freely  choose  him.; 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  29 

and  that  the  energetic  action  of  God's  holy 
will  in  a  world  held  even  in  the  grip  of  hered- 
itary sin  will  be  efficacious  in  redeeming  men 
and  establishing  among  them  his  eternal  King- 
dom. Wo  should  be  hopeless  in  our  labors  if 
the  outcome  of  our  efforts  were  contingent 
upon  the  unaided  response  of  sinful  men.  All 
uncertainty  vanishes,  however,  in  the  full  per- 
suasi6n7warranted_by  the  Scriptures  that  God 
guides,  controls  and  efficaciously  wills  the  glor- 
ious outcomje. 


Acts  13:48;  Exodus  33:18,  19;  Matthew  20:15;  Ephe- 
slans  1:3-14;  2  TimotQiy  1:8,  9;  1  Peter  1:1,  2;  2  Thee- 
salonians  2:  13,  14;  1  Corinthians  4:7;  1  Corinthians 
1:27;  1  Thessalonians  2:12,  13;  2  Timothy  2:10;  John 
«:37-40;  1  Thessalonians  1:4-10;  2  Peter  1:10,  11;  He- 
brews 6:11;  Acts  4:27,  28;  Numbers  23:19;  1  Timothy 
6:  21;  John  10:26-29;  Romans  9:19-33. 


THE  MEDIATOR, 

There  is  one  Mediator  between  God  and 
man,  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  born  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
He  lived  a  sinless  life;  taught  perfectly  the 
truth  about  God  and  human  destiny ;  was  him- 
self the  true  manifest-ation  of  God  in  the  flesh; 
died  on  the  cross  and  atoned  for  the  sins  of 
men;  was  buried;  rose  again  from  the  dead; 
appeared  to  the  disciples;  ascended  to  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father,  and  gave  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  his  people.    He  now  presides  over  the  des- 


\> 


30  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

tinies  of  his  church  and  will  come  again  at  the 
time  appointed  by  the  Father  to  judge  the 
world. 

Two  or  three  points  call  for  special  empha- 
sis. Attempts  are  often  made  in  our  day  to 
hold  that  Jesus  was  the  first  true  revealer  of 
God  in  conjunction  with  the  other  view  that  in 
no  sense  did  he  transcend  the  human.  This 
is  a  favorite  view  with  many  who  feel 
that  science  forbids  them  to  accept  the 
true  divinity  or  deity  of  Jesus.  They 
would  make  of  him  simply  the  great- 
est of  the  prophets  or  the  greatest 
of  the  saints,  but  as  such  they  think  that 
he  brings  us  the  true  knowledge  of  God.  If 
men  insist  on  applying  the  criterion  of  physi- 
cal law  to  religion,  however,  they  can  never 
prove  the  existence  of  God  even.  For  the  laws 
of  nature  comie  to  an  end  when  we  rise  above 
nature  into  the  realm  of  persons,  and  especial- 
ly when  we  come  to  deal  with  the  divine  per- 
son. Science  explains  horizontally  or  on  a 
level,  we  may  say.  The  cause  of  every  eflPect 
in  physical  nature  lies  behind  the  effect  on  the 
same  level.  The  series  of  causes  and  effects  in 
nature  is  like  a  row  of  bricks.  Knock  over  the 
first  brick  in  the  row  and  in  turn  each  of  the 
others  will  be  knocked  over.  Nothing  is  ex- 
plained in  nature  save  as  we  assign  something 
we  know  to  explain  a  new  and  unknown  thing. 
The  effect  must  be  explained  in  terms  of  the 
cause.    A  brick  must  be  explained  by  another 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  31 

brick.  This  is  the  meaning  of  the  law  of  the 
transformation  of  energy  or  physical  causa* 
tion.  If  nature  is  a  row  of  bricks,  then  we 
never  find  a  God  in  nature,  but  only  an  endless 
row  of  bricks.  This  I  say  is  the  way  science 
treats  nature.  Science,  therefore,  never  can 
prove  or  disprove  God's  existence.  It  is  difficult 
to  see  how  men  can  accept  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  as  to  what  God  is  unless  they  admit  that 
he  reveals  God  not  merely  from  the  human 
but  also  from  the  divine  side.  Jesus  was  not 
merely  the  'Trince  of  Saints",  as  Martineau 
has  called  him.  He  could  not  be  a  revealer  of 
God  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  unless  he  was 
more  than  the  chief  of  saints.  We  would  seem 
to  be  left  with  no  sure  knowledge  of  God,  there- 
fore, unless  Jesus  was  moie  than  a  man. 
For  science  never  demonstrates  God.  aJid 
the  experience  of  even  the  greatest  of 
saints  would  always  bo  open  to  questiori 
when  he  attempted  to  convey  to  us  a 
knowledge  of  -the  infinite  God.  As  limited  and 
human  in  mental  capacity  his  experience 
might  be  perfectly  genuine,  but  the  rigidly 
scientific  objector  could  always  raise  a  question 
as  to  whether  the  explanation  of  the  experience 
was  the  true  and  correct  one.  To  himself  the 
explanation  might  be  perfectly  satisfactory, 
but  so  long  as  the  objector  could  question  his 
capacity  to  grasp  the  infinite  and  convey  an 
adequate  revelation  of  God,  his  testimony 
would  find  limited  acceptance.    If  Jesus,  then, 


32  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

was  a  genuine  and  final  revelation  of  God  to 
men,  he  must  have  been  more  than  a  man 
reaching  up  and  seeking  to  find  God.  He 
must  also  have  been  God  coming  down  among 
men  and  making  himself  known  to  them. 
And  this  is  precisely  the  testimony  of  the 
Scriptures,  so  that  in  Jesus  Christ  we  have  the 
true  revelation  of  God  to  man. 

Christ's  atonement  was  necessary  for  the 
pardon,  justification  and  redemption  of  sinners. 
There  are  many  theories  of  the  atonement, 
too  many  for  discussion  here.  They  may  easi- 
ly be  grouped  into  two  classes:  First,  those 
which  make  Christ's  work  on  the  cross  termi- 
nate on  men  only;  and,  second,  those  which 
make  it  terminate  also  on  God.  The  latter 
is  the  true  view.  God,  indeed,  was  not  induced 
to  love  men  by  what  Christ  did.  He  loved 
them  beforehand,  and  Christ's  work  was  the 
expression  and  proof  of  his  love.  It  was  not 
that  God  was  an  unwilling  tyrant  who  had  to 
be  bought  over  to  man's  side  by  the  shedding 
of  Christ's  blood.  The  atonement  was  God's 
own  arrangement  and  provision  to  meet  an 
infinite  necessity  of  his  holy  and  loving  nature. 
God  set  forth  Christ  to  be  the  propitiation  for 
our  sin  in  order  that  he  might  be  both  just 
and  the  justifier  of  him  who  believeth  in  Jesus 
Christ. 

It  is  sometimes  argued  that  this  idea  of  an 
objective  or  substitutionary  atonement,  some- 
thing done  by  Christ,  which  is  the  ground 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  33 

of  the  remisQion  of  sins,  is  not  a  part  of  the 
true  Gospel  of  Christ,  but  was  a  bit  of  Judaism 
brought  over  into  Christ's  true  Gospel  by  Paul, 
who  was  originally  a  Jew.  This  is  a  very  in- 
consistent view  of  Paul.  For  it  is  very  gener- 
ally recognized  that  Paul  was  the  one  apostle 
who  fully  escaped  the  narrow  trammels  of 
Judaism  and  grasped  fully  the  universaUsm  of 
the  Gospel.  In  particular  it  is  Paul's  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  which  revolutionized 
Judaism,  or  rather  overthrew  it  completely, 
and  showed  that  the  Gospel  was  as  wide  as  the 
world  in  its  meaning  and  intention.  This,  I 
say,  is  quite  generally  admitted.  And  yet 
there  are  those  who  allege  that  wrapped  up 
with  Paul's  universal  doctrine  which  killed 
Judaism,  is  an  essential  part  of  Judaism  which 
would  kill  the  Gospel,  viz.,  his  doctrine  of  an 
objective  atonement.  Paul  certainly  thought 
of  his  doctrine  in  the  main  as  the  direct  antith- 
esis and  contradiction  of  Judaism.  In  part 
indeed  it  was  the  fulfillment  of  Judaism,  but 
in  that  fulfillment  Judaism  was  abolished. 
Paul's  doctrine  of  atonement,  then,  is  not  an 
alien  element  in  the  Gospel.  Jesus  himself 
predicted  that  he  would  give  his  life  a  ransom 
for  many  (Matt.  20:28)  and  that  he  would 
shed  his  blood  for  the  remission  of  sins  (Matt. 
26:28).  The  Scriptures  indeed  refrain  from 
philosophizing  about  the  atonement,  but  they 
set  forth  the  truth  in  suc^h  termis  that  we  can- 
not truly  say  that  we  are  left  entirely  in  the 


34  BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  \ 

daxk  as  to  how  Christ's  death  saves  us.  The 
hoUness  of  God  no  less  than  his  love  required 
the  atoning  work  of  Jesus.  It  is  a  false  method 
which  separates  one  attribute  of  God,  such  as 
his  love,  from  other  attributes,  and  asserts 
that  God  acted  in  a  part  of  his  nature  only  in 
his  approach  to  men  in  the  atoning  work  of 
Jesus.  God  acted  always  as  a  unit,  in  his 
entire  nature,  not  in  a  fragment  of  it. 

From  the  fact  that  other  religions  including 
Judaism  have  in  them  the  idea  of  sacrifice 
and  propitiation,  it  is  concluded  by  some  that 
it  must  be  a  false  idea.  Fundamentally  this 
assumes  that  everything  in  the  non-€hristian 
religions  must  be  wholly  false.  Is  it  not  far 
more  likely  that  a  universal  religious  idea  has 
in  it  an  element  of  truth  than  that  its  univer- 
sality is  a  mark  of  its  falsity?  Christianity 
purified  and  fufilled  all  religious  ideas  of  men, 
emptied  them  of  their  transient  and  superficial 
meanings  and  revealed  their  true  inward  mean- 
ing. The  atonement  of  Christ  in  a  very  spe- 
cial manner  does  this.  In  it  God  appears  in 
Christ,  not  as  a  distant,  implacable  and  angry 
being,  requiring  a  satisfaction  for  sin  which 
man  cannot  supply.  He  himself,  as  holy  and 
loving  and  yearning  to  save  men,  provides  the 
Batisf  action. 

Christian  experience  throu^  the  ages  haa 
given  a  hearty  amen  to  the  substitutionary 
atonement  of  Christ.  The  sinner  knows  well  that 
it  answers  exactly  his  need  so  soon  as  he  begins 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  35 

to  reflect  upon  and  repent  of  hig  sins.  Dr, 
Bushnell,  who  rejected  the  objective  atonement 
of  Christ  and  made  it  simply  an  appeal  to 
man's  heart,  leading  him  to  repentance,  never- 
theless admitted  that  the  sinner  could  not  get 
along  without  the  "altar  forms"  and  ideas. 
The  guilty  conscience  requires  an  objective 
atonement,  something  done  for  it  as  well  as 
in  it.  If  this  be  true,  and  it  is  true  beyond  a 
doubt,  wherever  there  is  a  deep  sense  of  sin 
and  guilt,  then  it  must  rest  upon  a  deep  neces- 
sity of  some  kind.  Hence  we  are  right  in  tak- 
ing the  Scriptures  at  their  word  w'hen  they 
assert  that  Christ's  atonement  was  not  a  mer© 
dramatic  spectacle,  a  mere  object  lesson  appeal- 
ing to  human  hearts.  It  was  also  based  upon 
a  deep  necessity  in  the  law  of  righteousness 
and  in  the  holy  character  of  God. 


John  3:16;  Luke  19:10;  Isaiah  42:21;  Isaiah, 
chapter  53;  Hebrews  1:8;  Hebrews  1:3;  Phlllpplans 
2:6,  7;  Ephesians  2:8;  Ephesians,  chapter  1;  Hebrews 
7:25;  Hebrews  7:26;  1  Peter  1:19;  Hebrews  1:2;  Ro- 
mans 8:30;  1  Timothy  2:6,  6;  Romaus  6:lff:  Romana 
8:24-26;  Hebrews  9:15. 


THE  HOLY  SPIRIT. 

The  New  Testament  reveals  to  us  the  doctrine 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  its  completed  form.  His 
work  is  a  most  essential  and  vital  part  of  the 
religion  of  Christ.  In  the  Old  Testament  the 
Holy  Spirit  wrought  upon  the  hearts  of  men 
in  manifold  ways.    He  was  present  in  creation. 


36  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

bringing  the  present  cosmos  out  of  the  prime- 
val chaos.  He  was  present  in  the  propheta 
and  leaders  in  Israel  and  in  many  other  ways 
his  power  was  manifested.  Not,  however, 
until  we  come  to  the  New  Testament  do  we  find 
the  fully  developed  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
the  third  person  in  the  Trinity. 

The  Holy  Spirit  was  present  everywhere  in 
the  earthly  ministry  of  Jesus,  clothing  him 
with  power  for  his  messianic  work.  Through 
his  power  the  body  of  Jesus  was  raised  from 
the  dead.  The  Spirit  was  given  in  his  full- 
ness on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  to  abide  with 
the  people  of  Christ  forever.  He  convinces 
the  world  of  sin,  regenerates  the  heart,  leads 
and  guides  Christians,  making  clear  to  them 
revealed  truth.  He  sanctifies  and  sustains 
believers  in  trial  and  temptation  and  struggle. 
His  mission  is  to  glorify  Christ,  so  th-at  what 
Christ  does  he  does,  and  what  he  does  Christ 
does.  In  Paul's  writings  especially  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  developed  most  fully. 
The  whole  inner  life  of  the  believer  is  under 
his  influence  and  subject  to  his  power.  We  are 
commanded  to  grieve  not,  quench  not,  and 
resist  not  the  Holy  Spirit.  We  'are  sealed 
by  the  Spirit.  The  Spirit  is  the  earnest  of 
our  inheritance.  The  fruits  of  the  Spirit  are 
described  over  against  the  fruits  of  the  flesh. 
The  Spirit  teaches  the  apostles  in  their  labors 
and  in  the  writing  of  their  epistles.  Christ 
predicted  that  the  Spirit  would  come  thus  to 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  37 

take  his  place  when  he  left  the  earth  and  that 
it  was  expedient  for  him  to  go  in  order  that 
the  Holy  Spirit  might  come. 

It  is  a  strange  and  very  significant  fact  that 
Christians  for  nearly  two  thousand  years  have 
so  generally  neglected  the  New  Testament 
teaching  as  to  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  creeds 
of  Christendom  have  done  scant  justice  to  the 
doctrine  and  some  of  the  greatest  of  them  have 
scarcely  done  more  than  barely  mention  his 
office  work.  The  Philadelphia  Confession  of 
Faith  used  by  so  many  Baptists  and  the  New 
Hampshire  Confession  also  quite  generally 
used  are  without  separate  articles  on  the  Holy 
Spirit,  although  both  of  them  make  refer- 
ence to  his  work  in  connection  with  other 
doctrines.  The  Westminster  Confession,  the 
Presbyterian  standard,  is  also  lacking  in  any 
adequate  setting  forth  of  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Of  course  the  Holy  Spirit  is  men- 
tioned in  these  and  other  great  creeds  in  the 
statement  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  But 
this  comes  far  short  of  the  full  requirements 
of  the  case.  The  doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  so  interwoven  and  intertwined  with  the 
whole  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  that  it 
is  one  of  the  strangest  oversights  that  Chris- 
tians should  have  neglected  it  so  long.  One 
cause  of  this  negle<?t  is  no  doubt  the  long 
prevalence  over  wide  areas  of  centralized  and 
hierarchical  perversions  of  the  Christianity  of 
the  New   Testament.     When  church  govern- 


38  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

ment  is  lodged  in  the  hands  of  men  and  Chris- 
tianity becomes  merged  in  officialism,  the 
opportunity  for  the  Spirit's  guidance  passes 
away.  The  Spirit  deals  directly  with  the  heart 
of  the  individual,  and  the  ecclesiastical  official 
to  whom  is  committed  the  function  of  govern- 
ing does  not  want  any  other  guidance  for  the 
individual  apart  from  his  own.  It  was  found, 
therefore,  that  truly  spiritual  Christians  must 
needs  get  away  from  the  hierarchies  as  far  as 
possible,  either  in  the  monasteries  or  in  small 
heretical  bodies  who  asserted  their  indepen- 
dence and  freedom  in  Christ.  The  creeds  have 
largely  been  official  creeds  until  comparatively 
modern  times.  Hence  the  doctrine  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  has  naturally  been  kept  in  the 
background. 

Baptists  have  a  very  special  interest  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  need  to  reas- 
sert it  wdth  vigor.  We  believe  in  a  regenerated 
church  membership,  in  individualism  and 
freedom  of  conscience,  in  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  and  in  the  autonomy  of  the  local 
church,  in  an  open  Bible  and  freedom  to  wit- 
ness for  Christ.  Hence  we  are  peculiarly 
dependent  upon  the  Holy  Spirit  for  the  suo- 
cessful  prosecution  of  our  work. 

Gen.  1:2;  2  Kings  2:9;  Neh.  9:30;  Ps.  104:30;  Ps. 
106:33;  Ps.  139:7ff;  Ps.  143:10;  Isa.  61:lff;  Matt.  4:1; 
Mk.  1:10;  Mk.  1:12;  Luke  2:27;  Luke  4:14;  Jno.  1:33; 
Jno.  3:34;  Acts,  chapter  2;  Rom.  1:3;  Rom. 
8:1;  1  Cor.  2:4;  Eph.  2:18;  1  Thess.  5:19;  1  Tim.  4:1; 
Rev.  2:7;  Rev.  22:17;  John  14:16  and  26;  John  15:26; 
Jno.    16:1. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  39 

EEGENERATION. 

The  Holy  Spirit  of  God  regenerates  the  soul 
of  man.  No  human  influence,  no  form  of  cul^ 
ture,  no  kind  or  degree  of  education,  no  law 
of  development  works  this  change.  The  direct 
action  of  the  Holy  Spirit  alone  accomplishes 
the  result.  The  Spirit  may  and  does  use 
means,  that  is,  the  truth  of  God,  in  effecting 
it.  But  we  must  not  confound  the  agent  with 
the  means  nor  the  means  with  the  agent.  The 
truth  is  made  effective  to  regenerate  only  in 
and  through  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

The  change  wrought  in  regeneration  is 
described  in  the  Scriptures  as  a  "new  birth'*, 
as  a  "resurrection  from  the  dead",  as  a  being 
'made  alive"  in  Christ  and  in  other  ways 
which  ^how  clearly  that  man  is  helpless,  by 
reason  of  his  sinful  and  carnal  nature,  io 
work  this  change  in  himself.  In  it  he  is 
turned  from  the  love  of  sin  to  the  love  of 
holiness,  from  a  disobedient  to  an  obedient 
life,  from  bondage  to  sin  to  the  freedom  that 
is  in  Christ,  and  is  translated  from  the  king- 
dom of  darkness  into  the  Kingdom  of  light, 
and  led  fromj  the  service  of  Satan  into  the 
service  of  Christ. 


John  1:13;  1  John  3:9;  1  John  4:7;  1  John  5:1;  John 
3:1-8:  Tit.  3:5;  2  Cor.  5:17;  1  Pet.  1:22-25. 


40  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

REPENTANCE. 

Repentance  is  essentially  a  turning  of  tli6 
will  from  the  life  and  service  of  sin  to  the 
life  and  service  of  holiness  and  of  obedience 
to  "God.  The  word  as  used  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment means  a  change  of  mind,  but  it  is  a 
word  of  moral  significance  and  does  not  mean 
merely  a  change  of  opinion  or  judgment 
in  the  intellectual  sense.  Such  a  change 
may  and  does  often  take  place  without 
repentance  in  the  New  Testament  meaning 
of  the  word.  Here  the  will  is  directly  and 
necessarily  involved  as  well  as  the  intel- 
lect and  the  emotions.  There  is  a  change 
of  mind,  indeed,  and  there  is  sorrow  for 
Bin.  But  unless  sorrow  and  the  altered 
judgment  issue  in  the  turning  of  the  will 
from  sin  and  its  service  to  obedience 
and  service  of  God  there  is  no  Gospel  repent- 
ance. The  change  is  wrought  by  the  power 
of  God  through  his  Holy  Spirit,  using  the 
word  of  truth  to  convict  the  sinner  of  sin, 
and  to  lead  him  to  forsake  it  and  resolve  hence- 
forth to  endeavor  to  walk  before  God  in  a  man- 
ner well  pleasing  in  his  sight. 


Jer.  8:6;  Jer.  20:16;  Mk.  1:15;, Acts  11:18;  Jno.  16:8;- 
Acts  2:37,  38;  Acts  16:30,  31;  Luke  18:13;  Matt.  11:20, 
21;  Matt.  12:41;  Matt.  21:19;  2  Cor.  7:10;  Rev.  2:25; 
R«v.  16:9. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.     ^  41 


FAITH. 


Saving  faith  includes  belief  and  trust:  belief 
of  the  facts  and  truths  of  the  Gospel  and 
trust  in  Jesus  Christ  for  salvation.  Faith  is 
the  grace  which  is  the  root  of  all  other  graces. 
When  genuine  it  leads  to  a  godly  life.  It  is 
the  condition  of  all  God's  gifts  to  us  in  Jesus 
Christ.  It  is  the  condition  of  justification  and 
pardon,  adoption  and  regeneration.  None  of 
these  take  place  apart  from  faith.  It  is  the  ac- 
tion not  only  of  the  intellect  but  of  the  will  and 
emotions  as  well.  It  brings  a  real  knowledge 
of  God.  It  is  an  ajbiding  attitude  of  the  soul 
and  even  in  the  life  to  come  faith  in  its  essen- 
tial meaning  of  union  and  fellowship  with  God 
will  continue.  Salvation  has  always  been  con- 
ditioned on  faith,  not  only  since,  but  also  be- 
fore Christ.  Abraham  was  saved  through  faith, 
that  is  to  say,  faith  with  him  as  with  us  is 
not  a  means  or  ground,  but  a  condition  of  sal- 
vation. Our  faith  does  not  procure  salvation 
for  us,  but  it  so  relates  us  to  Christ  that  he 
lays  hold  of  us  and  saves  us  when  we  believe 
in  him. 

"But,"  it  is  said,  "were  not  the  Old  Test^ 
ment  saints  saved  by  works?  And  even  now, 
if  one  should  lead  a  perfect  life,  would  that  not 
be  salvation  by  works?"  The  question  complete^ 
ly  overlooks  the  relation  of  faith  to  works.  None 
save  Jesus  ever  lived  a  perfect  life.  But  if  one 
should  so  live  his   good  works  would  grow 


42  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

directly  out  of  his  faith.  Good  works  are  im- 
possible in  the  Gospel  sense  without  faith.  The 
energy  of  God  never  comes  into  the  soul  in 
its  regenerating  power  save  through  faith.  In 
Heaven  we  shall  be  without  sin  and  our  faith 
will  continue  there.  But  our  heavenly  perfec- 
tion will  not  be  credited  to  us  as  works  meritr 
ing  salvation.  They  will  be  wrought  in  us 
by  the  power  of  God  through  our  abiding 
union  with  him  in  Christ.  Precisely  thus 
would  it  have  been  with  any  pre-christian  soul 
if  such  a  soul  had  attained  perfection  on  earth. 
No  spiritual  perfection  ever  has  been  or  ever 
will  be  possible  without  faith,  and  that  means 
without  grace.  Hence  it  is  misleading  to  talk 
of  salvation  by  works.  The  law  was  given  as 
a  schoolmaster  to  lead  men  to  Christ,  but  it 
could  not  make  alive  spiritually. 

Many  people  are  troubled  over  the  question 
of  the  order  of  faith  and  repentance.  Which 
comes  first?  Clear  thinking  shows  that  the 
controversy  on  this  point  is  a  needless  one. 
The  Disciples,  many  of  them,  define  faith  as 
intellectual  belief  and  then  insist  that  faith 
must  precede  repentance.  Many  Baptists  be- 
come alarmed,  and  to  meet  this  view  insist 
that  repentance  must  precede  faith.  When 
faith  is  defined  properly  there  is  no  occasion 
for  any  confusion  of  thought  on  the  subject. 
Faith  is  more  than  intellectual  belief,  "the  bare 
belief  of  the  bare  truth".  Faith  is  also  trust 
in  Jesus  Christ,  an  act  of  the  will.     Now  as 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  43 

to  the  order  of  repentance  and  faith  it  may 
apparently  be  argued  with  equal  force  either 
way.  For  example  we  may  say:  Repentance 
must  precede  faith  because  saving  faith  is 
impossible  so  long  as  we  cling  to  sin.  This  is 
logically  cogent.  Yet  we  m)ay  also  argue  thus: 
Since  no  man  can  repent  without  the  grace  of 
God,  and  since  faith  alone  is  the  condi- 
tion of  grace  in  the  soul,  therefore  faith  must 
precede  repentance.  If  one  is  disposed  to 
emphasize  human  freedom  he  is  likely  to  put 
repentance  first,  and  if  he  is  disposed  to  empha- 
size the  grace  of  God  he  will  put  faith  first. 
Thus  as  a  mere  matter  of  logic  the  case  is 
evenly  balanced,  the  conclusion  depending  on 
the  starting  point  or  major  premise. 

But  if  both  are  equally  logical,  both  are 
also  equally  illogical.  There  can  be  no  inter- 
val between  Gospel  faith  and  Gospel  repen- 
tance. Each  is  bound  up  in  the  other.  When 
one  is  completed  the  other  is  completed. 
Otherwise  there  might  be  an  unbelieving  peni- 
tent, or  an  impenitent  believer,  either  of  which 
ideas  is  contrary  to  the  New  Testament.  In 
strict  logic  regeneration  precedes  both  faith 
■and  repentance  if  we  begin  with  the  true 
Gospel  teaching  that  all  is  due  to  the  grace  of 
God.  Yet  here  again  fact  and  apparent  logic 
do  not  necessarily  coincide.  The  correct  view 
is  that  regeneration  and  repentance  and  faith 
are  simultaneous  events  in  the  soul's  life.  No 
impenitent  or  unbelieving  soul  can  be  a  regen- 


44  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

erate  soul,  just  as  no  penitent  believer  cau  be 
unregenerate.  When  the  human  side  is  com- 
plete so  is  the  divine  side,  and  vice  versa. 
You  may  say  that  repentance  is  like  opening 
the  hand  and  dropping  what  it  holds,  that  is 
sin,  and  that  faith  is  opening  the  hand  and 
receiving  what  grace  brings,  that  is  salyation. 
And  then  you  may  infer  that  just  as  you 
must  open  the  hand  and  drop  what  it  holds 
before  you  can  gra^  what  is  offered,  so  also 
repentance,  or  letting  go,  must  come  before 
faith,  which  grasps.  This  argument,  however, 
overlooks  the  vital  truth  that  grace  not  only 
places  salvation  in  the  open  hand,  but  also 
relaxes  the  grasp  of  the  hand  on  sin.  The 
goodness  of  God  leads  to  repentance.  Grace 
not  only  fills  the  open  hand.  It  opens  the  hand. 
The  union  of  God  and  man  in  the  act  of 
salvation  is  the  actual  contact  of  both  the 
divine  and  the  human  personalities.  And  just 
as  when  you  touch  the  table  with  your  hand 
you  cannot  say  the  table  touches  your  hand 
before  your  hand  touches  the  table,  so  also  you 
cannot  affirm  the  priority  of  God's  contact 
with  man  nor  man's  contact  with  God  in  sal- 
vation. God's  grace  takes  the  initiative  but  the 
human  response  in  some  form  is  simultane- 
ous with  the  effectual  action  of  God's  grace 
in  the  soul  and  the  human  response  is  com- 
plete when  the  divine  act  is  complete.  When 
saving  faith  is  complete  so  is  repentance ;  when 
repentance  is  complete  so  is  faith;  when  faith 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  45 

and  repentance  are  complete  so  is  regeneration ; 
and  when  regeneration  is  complete  so  are  faith 
and  repentance. 

Matt.  9:18;  Mk.  1:15;  Mk.  9:24;  Luke  8:13;  Jno. 
5:44;  Jno.  6:29;  Jno.  9:35;  Jno.  17:20;  Acts  8:37;  Acts 
13:39;  Rom.  3:22;  Rom.  4:11;  Eph.  1:19;  Eph.  2:8; 
Jno.  16:8;  Rom.  10:9-11;  Gal.  2:16;  Eph.  1:13;  Rom. 
3:30;  Heb.  6:12;  Col.  1:23;  Col.  2:7;  Tit.  1:13;  Acts 
3:16;  Rom.  3:25. 

JUSTIFICATION  AND  ADOPTION. 

Justification  is  God's  act,  in  and  by  which 
he  declares  the  sinner  free  from  condemna- 
tion. It  takes  place  when  the  sinner  turns 
from  his  sins  and  trusts  in  Jesus  Christ  and 
his  atoning  work  for  salvation.  In  justifica- 
tion the  sinner  is  not  actually  made  just  or 
holy,  but  is  simply  given  a  new  standing  with 
God  according  to  which  his  faith  is  imputed 
to  him  for  righteousness  since  that  faith  ter- 
minates in  and  upon  Jesus  Christ  the  right- 
eous, Who  is  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  (Rom.  4:5,  11,  13,  22; 
John  1:29).  Justification  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  regeneration  in  that  while  regen- 
eration is  the  change  of  the  sinner's  nature 
by  the  action  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  justification 
is  the  change  of  the  sinner's  standing  by  a 
declarative  act  of  God  in  whic'h  sins  are  remit- 
ted and  the  sinner  is  freed  from  condemnation. 
Justification  again  is  to  be  distinguished  from 
adoption  in  that  while  both  are  outward  acts 


46  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

of  God  corresponding  with  the  inward  act  of 
regeneration,  adoption  has  to  do  with  the  pater- 
nal aspect  of  God's  character  and  his  relation 
to  the  regenerate  as  sons,  justification  is  the 
expression  of  his  judicial  function.  It  is  the 
Judge  dealing  with  the  transgressor  prior  to 
the  act  of  the  Father  dealing  with  the  son. 

There  is  no  contradiction  or  inconsistency 
between  the  paternal  and  judicial  relations  of 
God  to  men.  Sin  'and  trangression  put  the 
sinner  outside  the  pale  of  sonship  in  the  spir- 
itual and  evangelical  sense.  If  sonship  could 
exist  prior  to  the  change  of  the  sinner's  heart 
it  would  he  merely  a  formal  and  unreal  son- 
ship.  The  Scriptures  reserve  the  word  son  for 
the  higher  relation  of  man  to  God  Which 
arises  when  union  is  restored  between  God  and 
man  and  the  heart  is  changed  by  the  Holy 
Spirit  when  faith  in  Christ  takes  place.  God  is 
always  fatherly  in  his  yearnings  and  desires 
toward  men.  He  longs  for  all  men  to  become 
filial  toward  him,  but  so  long  as  men  refuse 
to  act  toward  God  -as  sons  the  relationship 
cannot  be  completed.  God  therefore  does  not 
^jhange  his  nature  when  men  become  the  sons 
of  God,  but  the  nature  of  man  is  changed 
instead.  This  fact  will  help  to  clear  up  the 
confusion  of  thought  in  many  minds  as  to  the 
question  of  God's  Fatherhood.  Fatherhood 
and  sonship  are  members  of  a  reciprocal  rela- 
tionship which  arises  from  similarity  of  moral 
and  spiritual  nature  in  God  -and  man.     To 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  47 

make  God  the  Father  of  wicked  men  in  the 
higher  sense  therefore  of  the  spiritual  relation- 
ship would  put  God's  nature  on  a  level  with 
that  of  the  sinner.  Man  as  God's  crea- 
ture, made  in  God's  image  and  the  special 
object  of  his  love,  is  constituted  for  son- 
ship,  and  if  sonship  is  defined  in  terms 
of  creaturehood  or  original  moral  likeness 
to  God  all  men  may  be  called  sons  of  God. 
But  the  Scriptures  observe  a  wise  economy 
in  the  use  of  the  terms  son  and  sonship 
by  reserving  it  chiefly  for  the  higher  spiritual 
relationship,  especially  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, where  sonship  is  usually  declared 
to  be  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  If  indeed 
sonship  in  the  lower  and  higher  senses  were 
used  interchangeably  it  would  tend  to  destroy 
the  meaning  of  the  higher,  and  to  confuse  the 
values  and  debase  the  coinage  of  the  moral 
Kingdom. 

The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  in  the 
fifteenth  chapter  of  Luke  shows  how  sin  dis- 
turbs the  true  relations  between  God  and 
man.  Under  the  forms  of  fatherhood  and 
sonship  the  beautiful  story  of  man's  alienation 
from  and  return  to  God  is  told.  The  son's 
sense  of  need  was  not  in  the  first  instance  a 
filial  feeling  at  all.  It  was  bodily  hunger.  He 
began  to  be  in  want  and  would  fain  have  eaten 
the  husks  fed  to  the  swine.  Next  comes  his  sense 
of  unworthiness  and  confession  of  sin.  ^'I  am 
no  more  worthy  to  be  called  thy  son :  make  me 


48  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

as  one  of  thy  hired  servants",  is  what  he  saya 
to  his  father  when  he  returns.  His  moral  in- 
stinct was  quite  correct.  He  felt,  now  that  he 
was  penitent  for  his  evil  life,  how  far  below 
the  plane  of  true  eonship  he  had  been  living. 
The  father  also  recognizes  this.  For  he  says, 
^'My  son  was  dead,  and  is  alive  again;  he  was 
lost  and  is  found'^  Here,  then,  was  a  son 
who  was  not  a  son,  and  a  father  to  whom  the 
son  living  a  sinful  life  was  dead — that  is,  the 
son  was  as  if  he  did  not  exist,  until  broken- 
hearted over  his  sins  he  returns  to  the  father. 
By  sin,  then,  the  son  threw  away  his  sonship. 
He  still  bore  the  original  constitution  derived 
from  his  father,  but  all  the  higher  elemients 
of  his  sonship  were  gone.  I  think  the  ap- 
parent inconsistencies  in  the  Scriptures,  where 
at  times  there  seems  to  be  taught  a  imiversal 
Fatherhood  of  God  and  sonship  of  man  (as  in 
this  parable),  are  to  be  explained  thus.  The 
abnormal  conditions  produced  by  sin  placing 
man  outside  the  pale  of  true  sonship,  and  yet 
leaving  him  with  the  moral  constitution  be- 
stowed upon  him  when  he  was  made  in  God^s 
image — these  facts  account  for  the  language 
of  Scripture  on  the  subject.  God  remains 
paternal  in  his  desires,  his  nature  does  not 
change.  The  change  is  in  men  who  have 
wandered  away  from  him.  The  inconsistency 
after  all,  then,  is  not  in  the  Scriptures,  but  in 
man's  conduct.  Sometimes  the  Scriptures  give 
hints  of  this  paternal  yearning  of  God's  heart 


±>APTIST  BELIEFS.  49 

towards  men.  Sometimes  they  speak  of  the 
original  and  primal  relation  of  man  to  God, 
or  refer  to  mun  as  God's  offspring  in  a  general 
sense  as  in  Paul's  sermon  at  Athens.  But  we 
find  in  the  New  Testament  much  emphasis 
upon  the  nature  of  that  sonship  which  alone 
has  significance  for  man  in  the  highest  sense, 
viz.,  the  sonship  which  arises  through  faith  in 
Christ,  regeneration  by  the  Spirit  and  moral 
likeness  to  God,  a  sonship  so  diverse  from 
and  so  much  higher  than  man's  natural  like- 
ness to  God  that  Paul  employs  the  word  adop- 
tion to  indicate  how  it  comes  to  men. 

Adoption  in  Paul's  writings  then  is  the  word 
borrowed  from  Koman  usage  to  express  the 
outward  act  of  God  corresponding  with  our 
inner  spiritual  change  when  regeneration  takes 
place  and  we  are  made  new  creatures  in  moral 
anid  spiritual  qualities. 

Acts  13:39;  Rom.  5:9;  Rom.  3:25ff;  Isa.  53:11,  12; 
Rom.  8:1;  Rom.  5:lff;  Rom.  4:4,  5;  Rom.  5:21;  Rom. 
6:23;  Rom.  5:19;  1  Cor.  1:30,  31;  1  Tim.  4:8;  Rom. 
8:15;  Gal.  4:5;  Eph.  1:5. 

SANCTIFICATION. 

Sanctification  is  the  process  by  which  regen- 
erate men  are  gradually  transformed  into  the 
image  and  likeness  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  word 
means  first  to  be  set  apart  to  a  holy  use,  and 
second  to  become  actually  holy.  In  both 
senses    it    applies   to    the    Christian    believer. 

4, 


50  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

When  the  Scriptures  refer  to  sanctification  as 
a  past  act  it  usually  is  to  be  taken  in  the  first 
sense.  The  Holy  Spirit  in  the  believer  carries 
on  the  process  which  continues  throughout  the 
present  life.  The  Spirit  of  God  employs  the 
word  of  truth,  the  appointm'ents,  services  and 
ordinances  of  the  church,  the  events  and  expe- 
riences of  our  daily  life  and  various  other 
means  for  our  sanctification. 

No  one  becomes  sinless  in  the  present  life. 
He  may  and  should  become  more  and  more 
complete  or  mature  as  the  years  pass.  The 
Scriptures  employ  the  word  perfect  to  express 
the  idea  of  symmetry  and  completeness  in  the 
possession  of  all  the  parts,  as  well  as  of  sinless- 
ness.  In  the  sense  of  sinlessness  it  never 
applies  to  men  in  this  life.  Perfection 
is  the  goal  and  ideal  of  our  Christian 
life  and  the  most  advanced,  the  most  mature 
or  "perfect"  Christian,  Paul  declares,  is  he  who 
has  a  sense  of  his  own  imperfections  (Phil. 
3:13-16). 

The  most  saintly  men  and  women  have  al- 
ways been  keenly  alive  to  their  shortcomings, 
just  as  was  Paul  the  apostle.  In  his  later 
epistles  Paul  seems  filled  as  never  before  with 
this  sense  of  spiritual  defect.  He  yearns  to 
*'know"  Christ  and  "be  found  in  him";  he 
counts  not  himself  to  have  attained;  he 
presses  "towards  the  mark";  he  forgets  the 
things  that  are  behind,  et<^.  All  this  shows  that 
the  more  vividly  we  realize  the  infinite  stand- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  ^     51 

ard  of  holiness  in  our  faith,  the  more  distant 
do  our  present  attainments  seem  below  it.  A 
self-complacent  belief  in  one's  own  sinless  ''per- 
fection", therefore,  is  a  sure  mark  of  spiritual 
blindness.  It  is  the  same  kind  of  mistake  a 
child  makes  who  thinks  he  can  grasp  a  star. 
He  is  without  appreciation  of  the  interval  be- 
tween him  and  the  star.  It  is  this  sense  of 
imperfection  which  deepens  our  appreciation  of 
the  atonement  of  Christ  and  of  God's  love  aa 
displayed  therein.  In  his  first  epistle  John  de- 
clares that  if  we  walk  in  the  light  as  he  is  in 
the  light  we  ''have  fellowship  one  with  an- 
other". Then  as  if  overcome  by  the  dazzling 
splendor  of  God's  light  and  turned  back  upon 
his  own  sinfulness,  he  adds,  "and  the  blood 
of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  us  from  all 
sin"  (1  John  1:7).  We  see  then  how  the 
sense  of  imperfection  goes  along  with  ua 
through  life,  deepening  indeed  in  a  real  sense 
as  we  make  spiritual  progress.  Thus  in  the 
Christian  life  we  see  the  meaning  of  Paul's 
paradox  in  his  letter  to  the  Philippians  ac- 
cording to  which  the  most  m'ature  or  "per- 
fect" Christian  is  he  who  most  keenly  realizes 
his  own  imperfections  and  struggles  hardest 
to  overcome  them  (Phil.  3:15).  There  is  one 
great  danger  we  should  guard  against  in  con- 
nection with  this  subject  of  sanctification.  In 
opposing  the  "perfectionist"  or  "sanctification^ 
ist"  we  may  easily  fail  to  emphasize  the  im- 
portance of  growth  in  grace  and  in  Christian 


52  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

character.  We  may  adopt  an  attitude  of  con- 
tentment with  the  ordinary  conventional 
Christian  life  as  against  the  '^higher  life",  and 
this  is  even  worse  than  what  we  oppose.  We 
may  spend  our  time  fighting  the  ' ^perfectionist" 
while  living  a  worldly  life  ourselves.  Dr.  A.  J. 
Gordon  said:  "It  is  not  an  edifying  spectacle 
to  see  a  Christian  worldling  hurling  stones  at 
a  Christian  perfectionist."  We  may  and 
should  meet  his  errors,  but  we  should  not  be 
led  thereby  to  adopt  a  low  standard  for  our- 
selves. 

Sanctification  includes  all  of  the  Christian's 
relationships.  Santification  is  social  as  well  as 
individual.  It  is  not  merely  an  inward,  it  is 
also  an  outward  transformiation.  What  the 
Christian  is  in  his  relations  to  his  fellowmen  in 
business  and  social  and  civic  life  is  the  true 
index  of  the  sanctifying  process  within.  Noth- 
ing less  than  the  highest  ideal  is  worthy  of  the 
Christian  calling.  We  are  to  aim  at  per- 
fection because  God  our  Father  is  perfect,  and 
the  supreme  motive  and  incentive  to  the  holy 
life  is  the  desire  to  be  like  our  Father  in 
Heaven. 


Phil.  2:12,  13;  Eph.  4:11;  1  Jno.  2:29;  Prov.  4:18;  1 
Cor.  1:30;  1  Thess.  4:3;  2  Thess.  2:13;  1  Peter  1:2; 
Ex.  13:2;  Ex.  28:41;  Gen.  2:3;  Jno.  10:36;  Jno.  17:19; 
Acts  20:32;  Rom.  15:16;  1  Cor.  1:2;  Heb.  2:11;  Heb. 
10:10;   Heb.   10:14. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  53 

THE   PERSEVERANCE  OF   THE  SAINTS. 

The  believer  in  Jesus,  who  has  been  regen^ 
erased  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  will 
never  utterly  fall  away  from  Christ  and  be  lost. 
He  is  not  free  from  temptation;  he  may, 
through  neglect  and  failure  to  employ  the 
means  of  grace,  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  and 
bring  reproach  upon  himself  and  the  people  of 
God.  He  will,  however,  turn  away  from  his 
sins  and  return  to  his  Christian  duty;  he  will 
not  be  content  in  the  wayward  life.  It  is  the 
mark  of  the  child  of  God  that  he  cannot  be 
happy  in  a  life  of  sin.  Besides  this,  God's  care 
is  ever  over  his  child,  God's  grace  ever  seeks 
the  wayward  to  bring  them  back.  But  just  as 
God's  loving  nature  and  his  firm  purpose  impel 
him  continually  to  seek  to  win  the  wanderer 
back  to  the  true  life,  so  also  is  the  renewed 
heart,  the  soul  born  of  God's  Spirit,  inclined 
to  yield  to  God's  gracious  appeals.  The  soul 
which  yields  no  response  to  God's  seeking  love 
and  is  wholly  content  to  live  a  life  of  world- 
liness  and  sin,  thereby  proclaims  itself  an 
unregenerated  soul.  We  are  not  to  think  of 
God's  preserving  care  of  the  redeemed,  there- 
fore, as  if  it  were  a  prevention  by  force  and 
compulsion  of  the  consequences  of  a  sinful  life. 
The  resDonsive  perseverance  of  the  Christian 
is  as  essential  a  part  of  the  process  as  God's 
preserving  grace.     This  is  the  explanation  oi 


54  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

many  New  Testament  passages  which  seem  to 
imply  that  all  depends  on  the  act  of  the 
believer  and  not  on  the  grace  of  God.  The 
grace  of  Grod  is  effective  only  when  it  produces 
the  necessary  response.  The  possibility  of  a 
fall  is  quite  a  real  one  apart  from  the  grace 
of  God.  In  vain  also  is  the  grace  of  God  apart 
from  the  response  of  our  will.  The  New  Testa- 
ment writers  do  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  state 
boldly  and  strongly  both  facts,  in  order  that 
God's  grace  may  become  effective,  through 
warning  and  exhortation,  in  the  turning  of 
the  wayward  will  back  again  to  the  path  of 
duty.  God  does  not  lift  his  children  into 
Heaven  against  their  wills.  The  whole  of  the 
machinery  or  system  of  grace,  therefore,  is 
designed  to  make  them  willing.  Thus  do  they 
persevere  while  at  the  same  time  they  are 
preserved.  Here  again  much  confusion  of 
thought  grows  out  of  the  ordinary  way  of 
thinking  of  God^s  grace  as  if  it  were  a  physi- 
cal or  mechanical  force,  like  a  rope  tied  around 
a  Christian  to  keep  him  from  drowning,  or  a 
wall  built  to  prevent  him  from  falling  over  a 
precipice.  The  New  Testament  does  not  repre- 
sent it  that  way  at  all.  It  has  many  terrible 
warnings  against  apostacy — not  indeed  to  teach 
•apostacy  but  to  prevent  it.  These  passages 
are  bewildering  to  the  Christian  who  thinks 
of  God's  preserving  care  as  an  outward  wall 
compelling  us  to  keep  away  from  the  precipice. 
God  preserves  us  by  inclining  us  to  persevere. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  55 

A  mother  sent  her  four-year-old  boy  on  an 
errand  across  a  busy  city  street  full  of  dangers 
of  all  kinds.  A  friend  expressed  surprise.  The 
mother  said  the  child  had  been  taught  to  look 
carefully  up  and  down  before  venturing  across 
and  she  had  no  fear.  This  was  training.  The 
other  would  no  doubt  have  seized  her 
child  by  the  hand  and  towed  liim  across. 
God's  method  is  not  to  tow  us  but  to  train  us. 
Grace  does  not  compel,  it  inclines  us.  The 
New  Testament  emphasizes  training  as  against 
towing.  If  we  keep  this  in  mind  we  will 
understand  many  otherwise  difficult  passages. 


Jna  8:81;  1  Jno.  2:19,  27,  28;  1  Jno.  3:9;  1  Jno. 
5:18;  Rom.  8:28,  29;  PhU.  1:6;  PhU.  3;13,  13;  1  Jno. 
4:4;  Jno.  10:26-29. 


THE  KINGDOM  OP  GOD. 

The  eternal  purpose  of  God  in  the  revelation 
of  his  will  to  man  in  the  incarnation  and  work 
of  Christ  was  the  establishment  of  his  King- 
dom on  earth.  We  can  here  give  only  a  very 
condensed  outline  of  the  meaning  of  the  King- 
dom of  God,  or  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  both 
of  which  forms  of  expression  are  found  in  the 
New  Testament.  In  the  Old  Testament  all 
created  things  are  represented  as  belonging  to 
God's  Kingdom.  As  Creator  he  is  Lord  of  all 
things,  inanimate  as  well  as  animate,  suns  and 
stars  as  well  as  animals  and  men  and  angels. 
He  establishes,  however,  a  Kingdom   among 


56  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

men  in  the  call  of  Abraham  and  in  the  cove- 
nant with  Israel  as  a  nation.  That  Kingdom 
passes  through  various  stages,  in  the  patri- 
archal, Mosaic,  kingly  and  prophetic  periods 
in  the  history  of  Israel.  In  none  of  these  ia 
the  idea  of  the  Kingdom  perfectly  realized. 
The  incarnation  of  Jesus  Christ  continued 
God's  work  of  revelation.  The  preaching  of 
Jesus  had  as  its  central  truth  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  He  called  men  to  repentance  because 
the  Kingdom  of  God  "is  at  hand".  There 
are  various  phases  of  meaning  found  in  the 
word  as  it  is  employed  in  the  New  Testament. 
It  means  primarily  the  reign  or  rule  or  domin- 
ion of  God  in  the  human  heart  and  life,  but 
everywhere  the  Kingdom  in  the  larger  and 
wider  sense  of  God's  rule  in  the  universe  is 
taken  for  granted.  In  the  New  Testament  the 
Kingdom  of  God  is  an  inward  and  outward 
power.  It  is  a  present  and  a  future  reality. 
Sin  *has  disturbed  God's  rule  on  earth  and 
grace  has  come  in  the  person  of  Christ  and 
through  his  atoning  work  to  restore  it.  In  the 
New  Testament  especially  is  the  Kingdom  of 
God  a  new  principle  oif  redemption  in  the  heart 
changing  men  into  the  moral  and  spiritual 
character  required  by  God's  will.  Righteous- 
ness in  all  its  forms  is  the  aim'  and  end  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  The  Gospel  is  God's  ap- 
pointed means  for  the  realization  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  Kingdom.  This  King- 
dom of  God  is  not  to  be  identified  with  any 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  57 

outward  ecclesiastical  or  civil  form  of  govern- 
ment. In  one  of  its  phases  it  is  practically 
identical  with  the  spiritual  or  universal  church. 
But  it  never  coincides  exactly  with  any  outward 
form  of  ecclesiastical  or  civil  government. 

The  local  church  is  in  harmony,  or  is  meant 
to  be  in  harmony,  with  the  principles  of  the 
Kingdom.  In  a  real  sense  it  reproduces,  or  lo- 
calizes, and  perpetuates  the  Kingdom  of  God 
on  earth.  Its  doctrines  and  polity  must  con- 
form to  the  teachings  and  to  the  essential  na- 
ture of  the  Kingdom.  The  Kingdom  recedes 
somiewhat  into  the  background  after  we  leave 
the  gospels  and  enter  the  epistles.  The  church 
is  more  prominent  in  the  epistles.  Neverthe- 
less the  Kingdom  still  appears  in  the  teaching 
of  the  epistles.  Its  inner  nature  is  described 
and  its  future  triumph  is  clearly  indicated. 
Christ  is  King  in  the  Kingdom,  both  in  the 
gospels  and  in  the  epistles,  and  he  will  com^e 
at  last  and  as  its  King  he  will  judge  the  world 
and  bestow  upon  men  their  final  awards.  The 
Kingdom  thus  passes  from  the  earthly  to  the 
heavenly  and  eternal  stage.  When  Christ^s 
mediatorial  work  is  consummated  he  delivers 
up  the  Kingdom  to  God  the  Father.  His  aton- 
ing death  was  necessary  to  the  realization  of 
the  ends  of  the  Kingdom  and  a  great  and  in- 
dispensable step  was  taken  when  the  Spirit  was 
given  at  Pentecost.  The  duty  of  Christ's  peo- 
ple is  to  labor  for  the  coming  of  God's  King- 


58  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

dom  on  earth,  even  as  he  taught  ns  in  the 
Lord's  prayer. 

Gen.  2:4ff;  Ps.  47:7;  Ps.  103:19fC;  Ps.  104:4ff;  Pa. 
119:89ff;  Is.  1:2,  3;  Is.  43:21;  Ex.  19:3-6;  Jer.  31:31ff; 
Ezek.  17:22ff;  Matt.  ll:10fC;  Matt.  3:5,  6;  Mk.  1:5; 
Luke  3:7ff:  Jno.  1:19-27;  Matt.  13:41;  16:28;  20:21; 
25:34;  Mk.  1:15;  Luke  7:50;  13:3-5;  Jno.  18:37;  Matt. 
5:13-16;  7:21;  7:22;  10:23;  13:41;  Luke  12:8;  Matt. 
13:40;  19:28;  Acts  8:12;  14:22;  19:8;  1  Cor.  15:24ff; 
Eph.  5:6;  Col.  1;13;  Rev.  1:6;  3:21;  5:10;  11:16,  17; 
20:1-8. 

THE  SECOND   COMING  OP  CHRIST. 

The  Scriptures  teach  that  Christ  will  return 
in  person  to  this  earth.  The  time  of  his  re- 
turn is  not  revealed.  The  Scriptures  do  not 
seem  to  warrant  the  belief  that  a  state  of  per- 
fect piety  will  exist  on  earth  when  Christ  re- 
turns. Christians  are  commanded  to  expect 
the  coming  of  the  Lord  always.  New  Testa- 
ment Christians  did  this.  There  was  no  ex- 
plicit teaching  that  Christ  was  to  come  in  the 
New  Testament  age,  but  Christians  were  con- 
stantly expecting  his  return.  This  expectation 
should  not  tempt  us  to  do  slovenly  or  super- 
ficial work,  or  neglect  our  duty.  It  should 
rather  make  us  conscientious  and  faithful  in 
the  highest  degree.  The  New  Testament  re- 
veals no  program  of  events  which  is  to  follow 
the  return  of  Christ.  The  event  itself  was  the 
center  of  the  expectation.  He  may  come  to- 
morrow. He  m'ay  not  come  in  ten  thousand 
years. 

Matt.  24:27;  Matt  25:34f;  Mk.  13:3-37;  Luke  21:5flf; 
Acts  1:11:  1  Thess.   5:1-3;  2  Thess.   2:1-12. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  59 

THE  RESURRECTION. 

'At  death  the  bodies  of  all  return  to  dust. 
There  is  to  be  a  resurrection  both  of  the  just 
and  the  unjust.  Little  is  taught  in  Scripture 
regarding  the  resurrection  of  the  wicked  apart 
from  the  fact  itself.  In  the  fifteenth  chapter 
of  First  Corinthians,  however,  Paul  gives  a 
very  glorious  account  of  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  in  Christ.  Their  resurrection  bodies  are 
to  be  free  from  all  sin  and  infirmity  and  per- 
fectly fitted  for  the  glorified  spirit.  At  death 
the  spirits  of  believers  go  to  Christ.  At  tEe 
resurrection  body  and  spirit  are  reunited  and 
glorified  and  enter  fully  upon  the  eternal  re- 
ward in  Christ. 


Matt.  22:30;  Luke  14:14;  John  5:29;  Acts  1:22;  Acts 
4:2;  Acts  24:15;  Rom.  6:5;  1  Cor.  ch.  15;  Phil.  3:10; 
2  Tim.  2:18;  Rev.  20:6. 


THE  JUDGMENT. 

God  has  appointed  a  day  wherein  he  will 
judge  the  world  by  Jesus  Christ.  All  men  are 
to  appear  before  the  judgment  seat  of  Christ. 
The  word  judgment  means  discrimination.  At 
the  judgment  men  are  to  be  discriminated  or 
separated  according  to  moral  character.  The 
Scripture  teaching  as  to  the  judgment  day  does 
not  mean  that  the  final  destiny  of  men  re- 
mains  uncertain   until   that   judgment   takes 


60  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

place,  as  if  God  were  ignorant  as  to  their  con- 
dition until  he  made  an  investigation.  The 
judgment  is  rather  the  formal  declaration  of 
conditions  which  had  previously  existed.  It 
is  the  manifestation  or  exhibition  of  the 
righteousness  and  the  love,  along  with  other 
attributes  of  God.  The  principle  of  judgment 
is  in  operation  in  the  earthly  life  of  men  in 
a  certain  sense.  The  moral  law  operates  al- 
ways and  everywhere.  The  final  judgment, 
however,  is  the  necessary  culmination  of  these 
temporal  judgments.  God's  ways  will  then  be 
vindicated  to  men,  and  the  justice  of  all  his 
dealings  with  them  be  made  plain.  Men  will 
then  know  and  feel  the  justice  of  all  God's 
ways.  Even  wicked  mJen,  in  the  illumination 
of  that  judgment,  will  recognize  the  justice  of 
God's  decree  concerning  them. 

The  Scriptures  declare  that  the  righteous  do 
not  come  into  judgment  (John  3:18  and 
5:24).  This,  however,  does  not  mean  that 
they  will  be  absent  when  the  great  assize  shall 
take  plac-e.  For  Paul  declares  explicitly  that 
we  shall  all  be  made  manifest  before  the  judg- 
ment seat  of  Christ  (2  Cor.  5:10).  We  need 
only  to  remember  that  the  word  judgment 
means  to  discriminate,  in  order  to  harmonize 
these  apparently  contradictory  Scriptures.  The 
discrimination  of  judgment  will  divide  men 
into  two  classes.  One  class  will  be  condemned, 
the  other  approved.  The  word  judgment  is 
often  used  to  indicate  the  condemnatory  side  of 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  61 

the  process.  To  be  judged  means,  in  that  case, 
to  be  condemned.  This  is  what  John  means 
when  he  asserts  that  believers  shall  not  come 
into  judgment.  Not  the  condemnatory  but 
the  approbatory  aspect  of  judgment  will  befall 
believers.  They  shall  not  come  into  condem- 
nation, although  they,  too,  shall  stand  before 
the  judgment  seat  of  Christ. 

Judgment  is  to  be  according  to  works.  Un- 
belief on  the  part  of  sinners  leads  to  evil 
works ;  faith  on  the  part  of  Christians  leads  to 
good  works.  Works  in  both  cases  are  the  out- 
ward expression  of  a  deeper  condition,  the  at- 
titude of  faith  or  of  unbelief.  The  fundamental 
principle  which  fixes  a  man's  place  in  the 
scale  of  moral  worth  is  that  of  faith  and  unbe- 
lief. Since  the  judgment  does  not  fix  or  deter- 
mine destiny,  but  simply  declares  or  exhibits 
it,  it  is  based  on  the  outward  expression  of 
the  soul's  deeper  attitude  of  unbelief  and  of 
faith.  As  works  are  the  outward  sign  of  the 
inward  state,  and  as  judgment  likewise  is  the 
manifestation  or  outward  sign  of  the  inward 
state,  it  is  entirely  fitting  that  judgment 
should  proceed  on  the  principle  of  works. 


Matt.  25:32ff;  Matt.  12:36;  Acts  17:31;  Jno.  5:22,  27; 
Rom.  9:22,  23;  Mk.  9:48;  2  Thess.  1:5-7;  Mk.  13:35,  87; 
Luke  12:35-40;  Rev.  22:20;  Matt.  13:49;  Rom.  3:5,  6; 
Rev.    20:11-15. 


62  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 


THE  CHURCH. 


There  are  two  chief  senses  in  which  the 
word  church  is  used  in  the  New  Testameoit. 
In  a  number  of  passages  it  refers  to  all  believ- 
ers, whether  they  are  thought  of  as  existing 
on  earth,  or  on  earth  and  in  Heaven  at  any- 
particular  time,  or  as  the  total  assembly  of 
the  redeemed  in  the  life  to  come.  Some  take 
the  New  Testament  teaching  as  to  the  univer- 
sal church  in  the  last  sense  alone,  that  is,  they 
assert  that  the  universal  church  has  no  exist- 
ence at  present  on  earth  in  any  sense,  but  that 
in  the  life  to  come  the  local  church  will  cease 
to  be  and  the  universal  church  will  come  into 
existence.  There  are  passages,  however,  which 
forbid  this  view.  For  example,  in  Ephesians 
5:25-27  we  read:  "Husbands,  love  your  wives, 
even  as  'Christ  also  loved  the  church,  and  gave 
•himself  up  for  it;  that  he  might  sanctify  it, 
having  cleansed  it  by  the  washing  of  water 
with  the  word,  that  he  might  present  the 
church  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  not 
having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing; 
but  that  it  should  be  holy  and  without  blem- 
ish." In  this  passage  the  church  is  viewed 
as  existing  in  time  and  in  eternity  and  the 
continuity  of  the  church  which  exists  in  time 
with  that  which  exists  in  eternity  is  miade  in- 
disputably clear.  In  time  it  is  a  church  with 
spots  and  wrinkles;  in  eternity  it  is  without 
spot  or  wrinkle.    In  time  it  needed  cleansing 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  63 

by  the  washing  of  water,  that  is,  it  was  an 
impure  church  not  yet  free  from  sin.  In 
eternity  this  same  church  stands  before  Christ 
holy  and  without  blemish.  Now  if  the  church 
here  existing  in  time  refers  to  the  local  church, 
then  it  means  the  same  when  it  becomes  holy 
and  without  blemish  in  eternity,  and  we  have 
the  local  church  with  pastors,  deacons  and 
ordinances  carried  over  into  eternity.  I  know 
of  no  one  who  holds  this  view.  The  "generic" 
use  of  the  word  church  is  incompatible  with 
Paul's  meaning  here.  The  "generic"  sense 
in  which  Paul  sometimes  employs  the  word 
refers  to  the  church  as  an  institution  without 
referring  to  any  particular  church.  Yet  int 
this  usage  the  local  church  is  the  institution 
referred  to,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  cannot 
be  described  in  the  language  of  the  passage 
we  are  dealing  with. 

iSince,  then,  Paul  cleariy  means  the  same 
thing  in  both  parts  of  the  sentence,  his  lan- 
guage can  only  refer  to  the  totality  of  believ- 
ers both  in  time  and  in  eternity.  The  univer- 
Bal  church  is  not  an  outward  organization  at 
all  nor  can  it  be  made  co-extensive  with 
ecclesiastical  bodies  scattered  over  the  earth 
made  up  of  organized  parts  or  branches.  It  has 
no  earthly  ecclesiastical  functions  or  powers. 
Yet  it  is  mfost  real  in  that  it  includes  all  true 
believers  in  Jesus  Christ.  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ 
indeed  is  the  spiritual  reality  at  the  basis  of  the 
life  of   all   local   churches.     If  it  be   insig- 


64  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

nificant  or  valueless  or  unreal  because  it  is 
spiritual,  then  that  same  quality  is  equally- 
insignificant  and  valueless  in  the  local  church. 
The  visible  and  tangible  in  the  Chri^ian  reli- 
gion is  valueless  without  the  invisible  and 
spiritual.  The  universal  church  is  as  real  as 
the  Kingdom  of  God;  indeed,  it  is  practically 
identical  with  it.  We  are  not  warranted,  how- 
ever, in  refusing  to  employ  the  word  church 
in  this  general  sense.  The  New  Testament 
by  its  own  very  clear  usage  gives  us  most  ample 
warrant  for  using  the  word  church  in  the  uni- 
versal sense  as  defined  in  the  preceding 
remarks. 

The  great  majority  of  the  New  Testament 
passages  use  the  word  church  to  indicate  a 
local  body  composed  of  believers  in  Jesus  Christ 
who  are  associated  together  for  the  cultivation 
of  the  Christian  life,  the  .maintenance  of  the 
ordinances  and  discipline,  and  for  the  propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel.  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord 
of  the  church.  It  exists  in  obedience  to  his 
command,  and  has  no  mission  on  earth  save 
the  carrying  out  of  his  will.  It  must  not  form 
alliances  of  any  kind  with  the  state  so  that 
it  surrenders  any  of  its  own  functions  or  as- 
sumes any  of  the  functions  of  civil  government. 
Its  government  is  democratic  and  autonomous. 
Each  church  is  free  and  independent.  No 
church  or  group  of  churches  has  any  authority 
over  any  other  church.  Co-operation  in  Christ- 
ian work,  however,  is  one  of  the  highest  duties 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  65 

and  p'rivilgges  of  tlie  churches  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Yet  in  so  doing  they  do  not  form  or  consti- 
tute an  ecclesiasticism  with  functions  and 
powers  to  be  authoritatively  exorcised  over  the 
local  bodies.  The  voluntary  principle  is  the 
heart  of  the  Scripture  teaching  as  to  tho  in- 
dividual and  as  .to  local  churches.  All  souls 
are  entitled  to  equal  privileges  in  the  church, 
just  as  all  churches  are  entitled  to  equal  privi- 
leges in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  indi- 
vidual precedes  the  group  logically  as  well 
as  in  order  of  time,  and  the  organization 
and  government  of  the  local  church  pro- 
ceeds on  the  principle  of  the  voluntary 
association  of  free  individuals  in  obedience 
to  Christ  and  for  purposes  set  forth  by 
him.  Church  discipline  is  simply  the  group 
protecting  itself  against  the  individual.  The 
church  has  no  power  of  coercion  in  the  reli- 
gious life  of  the  individual.  The  individual 
stands  or  falls  to  his  own  Master,  and  is 
judged  only  by  him.  The  right  of  the  church, 
however,  to  protect  itself  against  the  disorderly 
individual  is  an  unalienable  right  in  Christ. 
The  objection  sometimes  made  against  church 
discipline  on  the  score  that  it  is  unwarranted 
coercion  overlooks  this  fact. 

Here  we  may  point  out  the  relation  of  local 
Bapti^  churches  to  general  Baptist  bodies, 
missionary,  educational,  etc.  Ihe  latter  are  not 
composed  of  churches  but  of  individuals. 
ChuTohes  may  use  them  or  not  use  them,  co 


'66  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

operate  with  themi  or  refuse  to  co-operate  with 
them.  In  all  such  co-operation  or  refusal  to 
co-operate,  however,  the  church  neither  -assumes 
authority  over  the  general  hody,  nor  submits 
to  the  authority  of  that  body.  The  relation 
is  voluntary  on  both  sides.  The  church  does 
not  create  nor  is  it  created  by  the  general  body. 
Where  a  church  is  out  of  harmony  with  a  gen- 
eral body  it  cannot  legislate  the  general  body 
into  harmony  with  itself  but  it  can  wi^thdraw 
if  necessary  without  the  consent  of  the  gen- 
eral body.  A  general  body  has  no  power  to 
retain  an  unwilling  church  in  co-operative  re- 
lations with  it.  There  is  no  conflict  of  juris- 
diction between  a  chuxch  and  a  general  body 
where  messengers  come  from  churches  into 
meetings  of  general  bodies.  As  members  of 
the  general  body  they  vote  and  act  as  individ- 
ual freemen  in  Christ.  They  may  act  under 
the  influences  of  the  known  wishes  of  their 
churches  in  measures  which  are  considered 
in  the  general  body.  This,  however,  is 
not  ecclesiastical  compulsion  but  spiritual  in- 
fluence. General  bodies  are  themselves  autono- 
mous. No  Baptist  general  body  has  authority 
over  another.  They  exist  in  a  graded  series 
but  this  does  not  imply  legislative  or  judicial 
authority.  It  is  for  convenience  and  efficiency. 
Each  body  is  self  determining  as  to  con^itu- 
tion  and  by  laws,  aims  and  purposes,  territorial 
limits  and  methods.  There  are  certain  neces- 
sities which   arise   ouit  of  these  principles  of 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  67i 

Biaptist  organization.  1.  The  necossity  for 
clear  thinking  in  order  to  avoid  confusion  in 
ideals  and  collision  in  the  practical  work  of 
the  Kingdom.  2.  The  necessity  for  well  de- 
fined limits  of  function  and  aim  in  t/he  general 
body  to  avoid  the  assumption  of  church  func- 
tions. 3.  The  necessity  for  courtesy  and  re- 
spect as  between  Baptist  general  bodies. 

The  officers  of  the  church  are  bishops  or 
elders  and  deacons.  The  New  Testament  em'- 
ploys  the  word  bishop  and  elder  to  designate 
the  samo  officer,  these  terms  being  descriptive 
of  functions  and  not  of  separate  officials.  The 
bishop  or  elder  is  an  officer  of  the  local  churc^h, 
not  of  any  group  of  churches  with  general 
jurisdicftion.  His  authority  is  that  of  influence 
and  leadership  rather  than  official.  He  is 
Called  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  the  work  and  is 
set  apart  by  or'dination  for  the  discharge  of 
special  functions  and  has  no  authority  to  lord 
it  over  God^s  heritage.  And  yet  as  leader  and 
guide  the  church  owes  to  him  its  loyalty  and 
support.  His  task  is  particularly  that  of  spir- 
itual leadership,  while  the  deacons  axe  charged 
rather  with  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  church. 

The  ordinancg^  of  a  church  are  baptism  and 
the  'Lord's~lgupper!  These  two  set  forth  in  a 
very  beautiful  and  comprehensive  way  tlie 
filjidamental  truths  of  the  Gospel.  They  are 
not  sacrajnents  buT^ordin^ges ;  they  do  not 
confer  or  communicalte  or  impart  grace  iii_and 
of   themselves.      They   are   outward   symbols 


68  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

which  ^gmfxj^OTjL^rQlojind.iiiithsjand^ 
truths"  have  vital  power  Ja  thfi  f?hTi,^ian~life 
when  duly  apprehenderi  or  spiritiially  discern- 
rd—by  tihn  reH pi ^nt  wh^n  'th^  nHi^^^ Lionel  are 
administered.  There  is  no  Scripture  warrant 
whatever  for  any  increase  in  the  number  of 
the  ordinances  from  two  to  seven  or  any  other 
number.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  is 
wholly  wrong  in  this  matter  and  the  multi- 
plication of  sacraments  is  a  great  evil  in  that 
body. 


Matt.  16:18:  Matt.  18:17;  Acts  2:47;  Acts  8:1;  Act» 
14:28;  Rom.  16:5;  1  Cor.  14:4,  5,  23;  Eph.  1:22;  Eph. 
3:10;  Eph.   5:24-32;  Col.   1:18;  Heb.   12:23. 


BAPTISM. 

Baptism  is  an  ordinance  of  Jesus  Christ  es- 
t'ablished  for  perpetual  observiance  by  his  peo- 
ple. Every  believer  or  regenerate  person  is  un- 
der obligation  to  submit  to  this  ordinan'ce  of 
Jesus  Christ.  Baptism  is  the  immersion  in  water 
of  the  believer  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The 
truths  sym'bolized  in  baptism  are  the  follow- 
ing: 1.  Remission  of  sins.  2.  Fellowship  or 
union  with  Christ  in  his  death  and  resurrec- 
tion. The  form  of  baptism  strikingly  symbol- 
izes death,  burial  and  resurrection.  3.  Cleans- 
ing from  all  unrighteousness  and  consecration 
to  the  service  of  Ood,  a  complete  self-surrender 
to  the  service  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  re- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  69 

solve  to  walk  in  newness  of  life.  Baptism  is  a 
prerequisite  to  church  fellowship,  andjo  gar- 
ticipationm_theLgrd/sLSupper. .  Immersion  is 
essehlilarto  Christian  'baptism.  Other  forma 
destroy  (the  meaning  of  the  ordinance.  The 
consensus  of  the  scholarship  of  all  denomina- 
tion's declares  that  immersion  only  is  baptism. 
The  Greek  word_tQ_JW'hi[^ .  Qiir  _woidJbaplisin 
correspond j^ajacmlyjncan  im 

Baptjsm  does_not  regenerate.  It  is  to  be  ad- 
ministered  ito  those  who .  have  previously  been 
regeneratjidljjy-JheL  -Spirit.jQf_God.  Baptism 
does  not  secure  remission  of  sins  save  in  a  sym- 
bolic way.  The  previously  forgiven  person  is 
T^he  only  proper  subject  for  baptism.  Baptism 
is  simply  the  outward  symbol  of  wbaitjhag,^!- 
ready  taken  place  within  the  subject.  Baptism 
confers  no  spiritual  but  only  a  symbolic  remis- 
sion of  sins.  Baptism  "for  remission  of  sins" 
(Acts  2 :38)  has  reference  only  to  the  symbolic 
remission  set  forth  by  the  act.  Forgiveness,  or 
remission,  is  inherently  a  divine  act  and  to 
make  it  a  function  of  baptism  is  to  ascribe  a 
divine  function  to  an  outward  ordinance. 
Moreover,  if  baptism  actually  conferred  remis- 
sion of  sins,  it  would  have  io  be  repeated  after 
each  sin,  whereas  baptism  is  administered  onoe 
only  to  each  believer. 


Matt.  3:7ff;  Matt.  21:25;  Mk.  1:4;  Rom.  6:4;  Eph. 
4:5;  Col.  2:12;  1  Peter  3:21;  Mk.  l:9fC;  Acts  2:38;  Acts 
2:41;  Acts  8:38;  Acts  18:8;  Gal.  3:27. 


70  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 


THE  LORD  S  SUPPER. 


The  Lord^s  Supper  is  an  ordinance  of 
Christ's  <ihurch  wherein  the  elements  are  bread 
and  wine.  The  bread  symbolizes  the  body  of 
Christ  given  fbr  the  salvation  of  men  and  the 
wine  symbolizes  his  blood  shed  for  the  remis- 
sion of  sins.  The  participants  of  this  ordinance 
are  those  who  have  been  baptized  upon  a  pro- 
fession of  their  faith,  and  who  walk  in  an  or- 
derly manner  as  mem'bers  of  a  church  of 
Christ. 

The  following  errors  have  been  associated 
with  the  Lord's  Supper  and  are  to  be  rejected 
wholly : 

(a)  The  claim  that  in  it  there  is  a  repetition 
of  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  for  the  sins  of  the 
world,  as  in  the  Roman  Catholic  sacrifice  of 
the  mass. 

(b)  The  claim  that  the  bread  and  wine  are 
the  real  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  as  in  the 
false  doctrine  of  transubstantiaition. 

(c)  The  denial  of  the  -cup  to  the  people  and 
in  any  way  unduly  exalting  or  worshiping  the 
bread  and  wine  of  the  ordinance. 

All  the  above  are  fatal  errors  and  wholly 
opposed  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Like  baptism,  the  Lord's  Supper  is  a 
symbolic  ordinance.  It  commiemorates  Christ's 
death ;  it  declares  or  sets  forth  that  death  when 
observed ;  and  it  is  prophetic  of  Christ's  return 
to  his  people  at  the  end  of  the  Gospel  age.    In 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  71 

all  these  respects,  however,  it  is  not  a  sacrament 
but  simply  an  ordinance  whose  value  is  in  the 
truth  -symbolized  rather  than  in  its  power  to 
impart  grace.  To  observe  the  ordinance  prop- 
erly is  to  discern  the  truth  symbolized  in  it. 
The  unworthy  observance  of  the  ordinance 
consists  in  the  failure  to  discern  spiritually  the 
body  and  blood  of  Christ. 


Acts  2:41,  42;  1  Cor.   ll:26ff;  Matt.  26:26-29;  Mk.  14: 
22-25;  Luke  22:14-23. 


THE  LORD  S  DAY. 

The  Lord's  day  is  a  Christian  institution 
for  regular  observance.  Works  of  necessity 
and  mercy  may  be  performed  on  the  Lord's 
day,  but  it  should  be  observed  in  resting  from 
ordinary  employments  and  in  exercises  of  wor- 
ship and  spiritual  devotion. 

The  first  day  of  the  week  came  to  be 
observed  by  Christians  instead  of  the  seventh, 
since  this  seems  to  have  been  the  custom  of  the 
Christians  of  tho  New  Testament.  Thus  it 
perpetuates  the  Old  Testamient  principle  of 
oibserving  one  day  in  seven,  wliile  giving  it 
a  Christian  significance  by  connecting  it  with 
the  resurrection  of  Christ  which  occurred  on 
the  first  day  of  the  weiek. 

The  Lord's  day  as  a  civil  is  not  to  be  con- 
founded with  it  as  a  religious  instittition.  The 
state  may  enact  laws  for  the  obser\^ance  of  one 
day  in  s^ven  in  a  secular  way  without  giving 


72  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

to  them  any  religious  significance  in  the  wider 
sense.  Like  laws  -against  stealing  or  murder, 
the  state  may  enact  such  laws.  But  the  state 
has  no  authority  to  compel  men  to  engage  in 
worship  or  other  religious  activities  on  Sunday. 
Eteligion  is  voluntary  and  religious  liberty  is 
opposed  to  any  legal  compulsion  whatsoever 
in  religious  matters.  This  distinction  needs 
to  be  made  clear.  Christians  sometimes  imag- 
ine that  the  state  ought  to  make  men  observe 
the  Saibbath  religiously;  while  non-christians 
sometimes  imagine  that  the  legal  prohibitions 
contained  in  Sunday  laws  are  unwarranted 
intrusions  of  the  state  into  their  religious  life. 
Both  are  wrong.  The  state  cannot  prescribe 
what  man  shall  do  on  Sunday.  It  can  only 
enact  what  they  shall  not  do.  These  negative 
enactments  are  not  religious  but  civil  in  char- 
acter, called  for  by  public  policy  and  the  gen- 
eral welfare.  As  we  shall  see  in  the  next  arti- 
cle the  state  is  without  any  religious  function 
whatsoever. 


Gen.  2:3;  Col.  2:18,  17;  Mk.  2:27;  1  Cor.  16:1,  2;  Aeti 
20:7;  Ex.  20:8;  Rev.  1:10;  Isa.  58:13,  14;  Heb.  10:24, 
25;  Heb.  4:3-11. 


LIBERTY  OF  CONSCIENCE. 

A  free  church  in  a  free  state  is  a  New  Testar 
ment  principle  which  has  found  full  expres- 
sion only  in  modern  times  and  in  the  Western 
hemisphere.     It  is  familiar  to  us  in  Amierica 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  73 

and  needs  but  briief  treatment  here.  The  great 
principle  underlying  religious  liberty  is  this: 
God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience.  To  him 
men  must  give  account  and  only  to  him.  The 
principle  Which  'Corresponds  with  this  on  the 
side  of  the  state  is  that  civil  magistrates  are 
ordained  of  God.  For  its  own  ends  the  state 
is  sovereign.  But  those  ends  do  not  include 
the  religious  life  of  the  individual  at  all.  Hence 
the  civil  and  religious  life  of  man  belong  to 
different  spheres  entirely.  The  right  of  every 
soul  to  direct  access  to  God  is  an  inalienable 
right,  with  which  the  state  must  not  interfere. 
(Note.  The  author  has  given  much  more 
extended  discussion  to  the  subject  of  this  sec- 
tion in  his  work  entitled  "The  Axioms  of  Heli- 
gion^) 


Rom.    13:1-7;    Matt.    22:21;    Acts    5:29;    Matt.     10:28; 
Matt.  28:10;  Rom.  14:4;  Jno.   4:23,  24. 


MISSIONS. 

The  duty  of  every  Christian  man  and  the 
duty  of  every  chuTCh  of  Christ  is  to  seek  to 
extend  the  Gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
No  Christian  and  no  church  is  exempt  from 
this  obligation.  By  personal  effort,  by  witnes- 
sing for  Christ,  by  gifts  of  money,  by  prayer, 
by  co-operation  with  missionary  boards  and 
conventions,  by  going  in  person  to  do  mission- 
ary work  in  the  community  and  state,  and 
nation,  and  the  world — all  these  are  forms  of 


74  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

statement  of  the  missionary  obligation.  This 
obligation  rests  upon  the  things  implied  in 
our  own  regenerate  life — since  the  new  birth 
means  the  birth  of  love  for  others  needing  sal- 
vation; it  rests  upon  the  express  command  of 
Chris-t  given  in  the  great  commission;  it  rests 
upon  a  spiritual  necessity  of  our  renewed  life 
which  remains  dwarfed  and  stunted  without 
missionary  activity ;  it  rests  upon  God's  eternal 
purpose  which  is  being  wrought  out  in  time, 
and  which  incorporates  in  itself  the  co-operar 
tion  of  all  the  redeemed  along  with  all  the 
necessary  agencies;  it  rests  upon  the  incarna- 
tion and  atonement  of  Christ — since  these, 
apart  from  missions,  cannot  be  adequately  ex- 
plained. 


Matt.    28:18-20;    Mk.    16:15-17;    Luke    24:47-49;    Acta 
1:6-8. 


EDUCATION. 

It  is  unusual  to  refer  to  education  as  a  doc- 
trine. Yet  there  is  ample  warrant  in  the  New 
Testament  for  such  reference.  In  the  great 
commission  Jesus  couples  the  duty  of  teaching 
with  the  duty  of  preaching.  The  teaching  and 
preaching  therein  enjoined  are  co-ordinate  and 
equal  parts  of  the  great  task  of  Christ's  people. 
The  academy,  the  college,  the  university,  in- 
deed, all  forms  of  organization  for  teaching 
the  truth,  all  institutions  for  the  diffusion  of 
knowledge  are  the  direct  and  logical  outcome 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  75 

of  the  work  of  evangelization.  The  Christian 
life  involves  a  particular  view  of  the  world  and 
of  God  as  its  providential  Ruler  and  Christian- 
ity in  its  doctrine  of  regeneration  lays  the 
foundation  for  education. 

Baptists  in  a  very  special  sense  are  under 
obligation  to  foster  Christian  education.  Some 
of  the  reasons  are  as  follows :  Fir^,  the  Baptist 
em'phasis  on  regeneration.  A  regenerate  church 
membership  is  a  cardinal  Baptist  doctrine. 
The  regenerate  life  is  the  unfolding  or  growing 
life  in  which  all  the  powers  of  man  are  alive 
and  demand  satisfaction.  Education  alone  can 
meet  ail  these  demands.  Again,  the  non-sacra- 
mental character  of  the  Baptist  view  of  the 
ordinances  implies  intelligence  in  the  partici- 
pant. The  ordinances  do  not  magically  convey 
grace.  Only  as  we  clearly  perceive  the  mean- 
ing of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper  do  we 
observe  them  aright.  This  is  the  Baptist  view. 
Clearly  then  intelligence  is  required  for  their 
proper  observance.  The  Baptist  view  of  church 
government,  that  is,  the  equality  of  believers 
and  local  self-government  in  the  churches,  re- 
quires education.  Self-government  requires  in- 
telligence. Baptists  believe  not  in  episcopal 
authority  in  the  ministry  but  spiritual  leader- 
ship. An  educated  ministry  is  essential  there- 
fore to  their  success  in  the  world.  The  right 
of  private  judgment  in  interpreting  the  Scrip- 
tures is  another  fundamental  Baptist  belief. 
This  necessitates  intelligence.     Again   volun- 


76  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

tary  co-operation  in  missionary  and  other 
forms  of  activity  in  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  our 
only  Baptist  method  of  working  together  for 
these  great  ends.  Hence,  we  require  iruteilli- 
gence  and  breadth  of  view,  the  ability  to  see 
things  in  their  larger  relations  and  to  adapt 
means  to  ends,  for  the  bringing  in  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  All  this  makes  imperative  the 
education  of  our  people  as  widely  as  possible. 
Christian  education  is  not  necessarily  in  con- 
flict with  education  by  the  state.  Indeed  they 
mutually  supplement  each  other.  The  public 
school  system  is  necessary,  but  Christian  ideals 
and  the  Christian  type  of  civilization  are  de- 
pendent upon  education  under  Christian  au- 
spices. Other  things  being  equal,  therefore, 
the  denomination  of  Christians  which  most 
widoly  and  most  thoroughly  promotes  educa- 
tion will  most  deeply  impress  the  world.  At 
home  and  abroad  there  comes  to  Baptists  of 
our  times  an  imperative  call  to  reinforce 
existing  schools  and  to  establish  new  ones 
wherever  they  are  needed. 


Deut.  4:5ff:  Ps.  119;  Is.  54:13;  Jno.  8;2;  Matt.  28:20; 
Acts  15:35;  18:11;  28:31;  Rom.  12:7;  Col.  1:28;  Gal. 
8:6;  Is.  9:15;  1  Jno.  2:27;  Luke  23:5. 


SOCIAL  SERVICE. 

Baptists  believe  in  every  form  of  righteous- 
ness: Personal  righteousness  or  right  living  in 
individual  conduct;  domestic  righteousness  or 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  77 

right  living  in  the  home;  civic  righteousnesa 
or  right  living  in  the  state;  social  righteous^ 
ness  or  right  living  in  society;  commercial 
righteousness  or  right  living  in  business.  This 
demand  for  righteousness  in  all  spheres  is  the 
direct  result  of  the  doctrine  of  regeneration. 
The  new  birth  affects  the  whole  person  in  all 
rektionships.  No  Baptist,  therefore,  can  be 
indifferent  to  movements  for  the  improvement 
or  purificaition  of  life  anywhere. 

The  Gospel  is  adequate  for  the  solution  of 
all  social  problems.  Patience  and  perseverance 
and  intelligence  of  a  high  order,  however,  are 
required  to  apply  the  principles  of  righteous- 
ness to  all  life's  relationships.  The  church,  as 
such,  cannot  enact  laws,  or  become  the  organ 
of  social  reform  save  indirectly.  Yet  the  pulpit 
should  expound  the  principles  of  right  living 
in  all  spheres,  and  members  of  our  churches 
should  stand  for  all  forms  of  righteousness  not 
only  in  their  own  personal  life  but  in  public 
life  as  well. 


Ezek.  8:5ff;  Eaek.  18:28fC;  Hosea,  chs.  4  and  5; 
Amos,  chs.  3  and  4;  Matt.,  chs.  5  to  7;  Rom.,  chs.  12 
to  16;  Epistle  of  James. 


HEAVEN  AND  HELL. 

According  to  Christian  teaching  Heaven  is 
both  a  place  and  a  state.  The  emphasis  in  the 
New  Testament  is  everywhere  upon  the  char- 
acter which  fits  a  man  for  Heaven  rather  than 


78  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

the  exact  lacaliiy  or  precise  teaching  as  to  the 
activities  of  Heaven.  The  place  and  the  en- 
vironment fit  the  character  hut  the  character 
is  more  determinative  of  the  environment  than 
environment  is  of  character. 

In  Heaven  we  persist  in  our  individual  lives. 
Christianity  everywhere  emphasizes  the  value 
of  personality  and  individuality.  The  Chris- 
tian Heaven  is  far  removed  from  the  Buddhist 
or  Brahman  reabsorption  in  the  infinite  or 
Nirvana.  As  personality  survives  in  the  life  to 
come,  of  course  earthly  experiences  and  earthly 
knowledge  leave  their  permanent  impress  upon 
U5.  Earthly  ties  and  what  they  meant  to  us  are 
a  part  of  ourselves.  There  would  be  little  or 
nothing  of  any  one  of  us  left  if  the  life  on 
earth  and  our  earthly  relationships  were  blotted 
out  in  Heaven.  Memory  survives  along  with 
will  and  intellect.  Our  whole  earthly  life  and 
experience  enter  into  the  final  result  in  char- 
acter, although  of  course  all  is  transfigured, 
purified  and  glorified.  The  question  often  asked 
whether  Christians  will  know  each  other  in 
Heaven,  really  answers  itself  upon  slight  reflec- 
tion apart  from  the  hints  which  Scripture  gives. 
We  could  scarcely  remain  ourselves  without 
such  recognition.  The  change  which  comes  at 
-death  is  not  a  change  of  moral  character  or  of 
individuality.  If  you  shoot  an  arrow  across^  a 
river  it  is  the  same  arrow  on  the  other  side  as 
on  this.  If  you  put  a  diamond  in  a  casket  and 
carry  it  into  the  next  room  it  is  the  same  dia- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  79 

mond  when  you  reopen  the  casket  and  take  it 
out.  So  also  with  us  in  death.  The  ©oul,  the 
individuaUty,  the  character,  is  the  arrow.  When 
it  is  sihot  across  the  stream  of  death  it  abides 
the  same.  Its  surroundings  are  changed  but  it 
remains  fundamentally  what  it  was.  This  life 
gives  shape  to  the  jewel  of  the  soul,  cuts  its 
-angles  and  facets,  as  it  were ;  the  next  life  may 
brighten  it  and  perfect  its  shape,  but  it  remains 
essentially  the  same. 

In  the  New  Testament  Heaven  is  repre- 
sented to  us  in  symbols  or  figures  of  speech  for 
the  most  part  and  the  descriptions  of  it  are  in 
large  measure  negative  rather  than  positive. 
We  gather,  however,  that  there  are  at  least 
three  elements  of  bliss  in  the  New  Testament 
picture  of  Heaven.  First,  Heaven  is  relief; 
relief  from  sin,  from  care,  from  loss,  from  sor- 
row, from  laborious  and  exhausting  toil,  relief 
in  short  from  all  the  things  which  blight  and 
curse  our  life  on  earth.  Secondly,  Heaven  is 
rewao'd.  In  the  early  ch^apters  of  the  Revelation 
the  rewards  of  Heaven  are  set  forth  under  nu- 
merous forms  which  are  very  suggestive  of  in- 
dividuality and  variety  in  their  bestowment. 
The  pillar  in  the  temple  of  God  suggests  sta- 
bility; the  right  to  enter  into  the  gates  of  the 
city  suggests  privilege;  the  white  robe  suggests 
purity;  the  white  stone  suggests  intimiacy  of 
personal  relation  with  Christ;  that  God  shall 
wipe  away  all  tears  from  our  eyes  is  an  exqui- 
sitely tender  and  sublime  d^laration  of  comn 


80  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

fort  for  tlie  sorrowing.  In  the  third  place, 
Heaven  is  realization.  No  doubt  many  lives 
which  are  broken  and  disappointed  will  find 
fruition  and  self-realization  in  the  life  to  comie. 
Heaven  is  represented  as  a  place  of  intense 
activity,  since  the  redeemed  serve  God  day  and 
night  in  his  temple.  Heaven  as  a  place  of 
eternal  inactivity  would  be  of  little  value  and 
very  unattractive.  The  sluggard  is  the  last 
man  who  should  dream  of  Heaven  as  the  ful- 
fillment of  his  ideal.  The  rest  of  Heaven  does 
not  mean  cessation  from  work,  but  from-  toil- 
some and  exhausting  work.  We  are  made  for 
action  in  body  and  brain  alike.  Inaction 
therefore  would  be  death.  Heaven  as  realiza- 
tion, then,  means  joyous  activity  without  ex- 
haustion in  a  perfect  environment,  and  in  a 
perfectly  congenial  society.  It  means  eternal 
growth  towards  God  and  his  infinitude,  eternal 
achievement  and  a  joy  corresponding. 

The  awards  of  the  day  of  judgment  will 
be  final.  The  wicked  shall  go  away  into  end- 
less punishment,  the  righteous  into  eternal 
life.  The  same  word  applies  to  the  duration 
of  the  state  of  both  classes.  That  word  is  not 
merely  qualitative  as  if  it  described  only 
the  nature  and  not  the  duration  of  the  awards 
of  the  two  classes.  It  also  means  duration, 
tihat  is,  endlessness.  'So  far  as  the  Scriptures 
teach  we  must  hold  to  the  endlessness  of  the 
state  of  the  wicked  as  well  as  the  righteous  and 
the  Scriptures  are  very  explicit  on  the  point. 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  81 

Passages  which  have  been  cited  to  prove  that 
the  wicked  miay  have  a  second  probation  and 
be  fully  restored,  are  none  of  them  conclusive, 
and  all  must  be  understood  in  the  light  of 
those  passages  which  admit  of  no  doubt  what- 
soever. 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  it  is  unfair  to  in- 
flict infinite  punishment  for  a  finite  sin.  This 
objection  overlooks  the  fact  that  the  punish- 
ment will  continue  no  longer  than  the  sin. 
Sinners  confirmed  in  sin  will  sin  forever.  The 
punishment  will  simply  keep  pace  with  the  sin. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  make  the  problem  and  the 
mystery  of  eternal  punishment  turn  wholly  on 
the  question  of  God's  love.  It  turns  equally 
on  the  question  of  human  freedom  and  man's 
choice  of  evil.  Men  would  revolt  in  the  depth 
of  their  souls  and  rebel  with  all  their  power  if 
God  were  to  use  coercion  in  dealing  with  us  in 
the  sense  of  forcing  our  wills.  This  he  will  not 
do  because  he  has  endowed  us  with  freedom). 
And  yet  the  demand  that  all  men  be  finally 
saved  as  a  means  of  vindicating  God's  govern- 
ment is  equivalent  to  a  demand  that  God  shall 
use  coercion  and  compel  the  lost  to  repent. 
Freedom  is  God's  gift  to  m-an  which  lifts  him 
above  the  brutes  and  makes  him  like  God. 
Yet  it  is  an  endowment  with  fearful  alterna- 
tives of  choice.  We  should  think  of  this  when 
we  are  tempted  to  arraign  God's  government 
for  the  existence  of  tan  endless  hell.  Hell  is 
the  monumental  expression  of  the  abuse  of 

6 


82  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

iiumian  freedom.    This  is  the  key  to  its  mean- 
ing.   This  alone  explains  it. 


Eph.    1:3-20;    3:10;    2    Tim.    4:18;    Heb.    11:16;    Matt. 
5:22-29;    10:28;    11:23;    18:9;    Luke    16:23;    2    Peter    4:1; 
<^        Matt.     19:29;     Luke     18:30;    Mk.     3:29;     Matt.     25:40ff; 
Rer.,  chs.  2  and  3;  14:10,  11;  Rev.,  chs.  20,  21,  22,  23. 


THE  NEW  HAMPSHIRE  DECLARATION 
OF  FAITH. 

Two  notable  Confessions  of  Faith  have  found 
acceptance  among  Baptists  in  America,  the 
Philadelphia  Confession,  which  was  promul- 
gated by  the  Philadelphia  Baptist  Association, 
and  the  New  Hampshire  ^'Declaration"  pro- 
mulgated by  the  State  Convention  of  New- 
Hampshire.  The  former  is  a  lengthy  docu- 
ment. When  published  in  Charleston,  S.  C, 
1813,  with  the  addition  of  a  "Summary  of 
Church  Discipline''  -and  "The  Baptist  Cate- 
chism'',  it  contained  three  hundred  and  three 
pages.  No  record  is  had  of  the  first  publication 
of  this  Confession,  but  in  1742  a  new  edition 
was  ofiicially  ordered  printed.  It  bears  the 
imprimatur  of  Benjamin  Franklin. 

Prof.  W.  J.  MoGlothlin,  D.D.,  Ph.D.,  says  in 
his  "Baptist  Confessions  of  Faith",  page  298: 

^'Many  churches  and  other  associations,  both 
North  and  South,  adopted  this  Confession.  In 
reoent  years  it  has  been  losing  ground,  espe- 
cially in  -the  North,  but  it  is  still  widely  used. 


84  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

and  in  the  South  is  probably  the  most  influen- 
tial of  all  Confessions." 

This  Confession  is  strongly  Calvinistic,  and 
it  is  an  exact  reproduction  of  the  Assembly 
Confession,  London,  1689,  with  the  addition 
of  two  articles,  one  on  Singing  Psalms  and  the 
other  on  Laying  on  of  Hands,  both  of  which 
are  commended. 

The  New  Hampshire  Declaration,  as  will  'be 
seen,  came  much  later  and  is  very  much 
Sorter.  It  was  incorporated  by  Dr.  J.  M. 
Pendleton,  1867,  in  his  "Church  Manual";  and 
by  Dr.  E.  T.  Hiscox,  1890,  in  his  "Standard 
Manual".  Recently  it  has  been  adopted  by 
the  Landmark  Convention  and  as  well  by  the 
Southwestern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary, 
the  latter  making  one  €hange  which  causes 
"visible"  church  to  read  "particular"  church. 

Dr.  J.  Newton  Brown,  1853,  editorial  secre- 
tary of  the  American  Baptist  Publication  So- 
ciety, did  more  than  anyone  else  to  hring  this 
Declaration  to  its  present  form.  On  his  own 
authority  he  revised  it  and  added  two  articles. 
The  changes  made  are  enclosed  in  brackets. 
The  two  new  articles  are  numbers  VIII.  and  X. 
This  Declaration  has  -become  almost  the  sole 
Confession  used  in  the  North,  East  and  West, 
where  Calvinism  has  become  most  modified  by 
Arminianism.  The  word  "Declaration"  is  used 
for  this  Confession  'because  the  New  Hampshire 
Baptists  expressly  so  decided  it  should  be  called. 
Those  who  may  wish  for  a  more  extended  dis- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  85 

cuflsion  of  Baptist  Confessions  are  referred  to 
Prof.  McGlothlin^fl  book  to  which  we  have  ro- 
ferred. 

The  New  Hampshire  Declaration  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

I.  OF  THE   SCRIPTURES. 

We  believe  [that]  the  Holy  Bible  was  writ- 
ten by  mien,  divinely  inspired,  and  is  a  perfect 
treasure  of  heavenly  instruction;  that  it  haa 
God  for  its  author,  salvation  for  its  end,  tho 
truth,  without  any  mixture  of  error,  for  its 
matter;  that  it  reveals  the  principles  by  which 
God  will  judge  us;  and  therefore  is,  and  ^hall 
remain  to  the  end  of  the  world,  the  true  center 
of  Christian  union,  and  the  supreme  standard 
by  which  all  human  conduct,  creeds,  and  opin- 
ions should  be  tried. 

II.  OP  THE  TRUE  GOD. 

[We  believe]  That  there  is  one,  and  only 
one,  living  and  true  God,  [an  infinite,  intelli- 
gent Spirit,]  whose  name  is  Jehovah,  the 
Maker  and  Supremo  Ruler  of  Heaven  and 
earth;  inexpressibly  glorious  in  holiness;  [and] 
worthy  of  all  possible  honor,  confidence  and 
love;  revealed  under  the  personal  and  relative 
distinctions  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit;  equal  in  every  divine  perfection, 
and  executing  distinct  but  harmonious  officee 
in  the  great  work  of  redemption. 


86  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

ni.  OF  THE  FALL  OF  MAN. 

[We  believe]  That  man  was  created  in  a 
state  of  holiness,  under  the  law  of  his  Maker ; 
but  by  voluntary  transgression  fell  from  that 
holy  and  happy  state ;  in  consequence  of  which 
all  mankind  are  now  sinners,  not  by  constraint 
but  choice,  being  hy  nature  utterly  void  of 
that  holiness  required  by  the  law  of  God, 
wholly  given  to  the  gratification  of  the  world, 
of  Satan  and  of  their  own  sinful  passions, 
therefore  under  just  condemnation  to  eternal 
ruin,  without  defense  or  excuse. 

IV.  or  THE  WAY  OF  SALVATION. 

[We  believe]  That  the  salvation  of  sinners 
is  wholly  of  grace ;  through  the  Mediatorial 
Offices  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  [by  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Father,  freely]  took  upon  him  our 
nature,  yet  without  sin ;  honored  the  [divine] 
law  by  his  personal  obedience,  and  made  atone- 
n^nt  for  our  sins  by  his  'death;  being  risen 
from  the  dead  he  is  now  enthroned  in  Heaven ; 
and  uniting  in  his  wonderful  person  the  tender- 
est  sympathies  with  divine  perfections,  [he] 
is  every  way  qualified  to  be  a  suitable,  a  com- 
passionate and  an  all-sufficient  Savior. 

V.  OF  JUSTIFICATION. 

[We  believe]  That  the  great  Gospel  blessing 
which  Christ  of  his  fullness  bestows  on  such 
as  believe  in  him,  is  justification;  that  justifi- 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  87 

cation  consists  in  the  pardon  of  sin  and  the 
promise  of  eternal  life,  on  principles  of  right- 
eousness; that  it  is  bestowed  not  in  considera- 
tion of  any  works  of  righteousness  which  we 
have  done,  but  solely  through  his  own  re- 
demption and  righteousness,  [by  virtue  of 
which  faith  his  perfect  righteousness  is  freely 
imputed  to  us  of  God;]  that  it  brings  us  into 
a  state  of  most  blessed  peace  and  favor  with 
God,  and  secures  every  other  blessing  needful 
for  timo  and  eternity. 

VI.   OF   THE   FREENESS  OF  SALVATION. 

[We  believe]  That  the  blessings  of  salvation 
are  made  free  to  all  by  the  Gospel;  that  it  is 
the  immediate  duty  of  all  to  accept  them  by  a 
cordial,  [penitent,]  and  obedient  faith;  and 
that  nothing  prevents  the  salvation  of  the 
greatest  sinner  on  earth  except  his  own  [in- 
herent depravity  and]  voluntary  refusal  to 
submit  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  which  refusal 
will  sulbject  him  to  an  aggravated  condemna- 
tion. 

VII.  OF  GRACE  IN  REGENERATION. 

[We  believe]  that  in  order  to  be  saved,  we 
must  be  regenerated  or  born  again;  that  re- 
generation consists  in  giving  a  holy  disposition 
to  the  mind ;  and  is  effected  in  a  manner  above 
our  comprehension  or  calculation,  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  [in  connection  with 


88  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

divine  truth,]  so  as  to  secure  our  voluntary 
obedience  to  the  Gospel;  and  that  its  proper 
evidence  is  found  in  the  holy  fruit  which  we 
bring  forth  to  the  glory  of  God. 

VIII.  OF  REPENTANCE  AND  FAITH. 

[This  article  added  in  1853.] 
We  believe  that  Kepentance  and  Faith  are 
sacred  duties,  and  also  inseparable  graces, 
wrought  in  our  souls  by  the  regenerating  Spirit 
of  God;  whereby  being  deeply  convinced  of 
our  guilt,  danger,  and  helplessness,  and  of  the 
way  of  Salvation  by  Christ,  we  turn  to  God 
with  unfeigned  contrition,  confession,  and  sup- 
plication for  mercy;  at  the  same  time  heartily 
receiving  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  our  Prophet, 
Priest  and  King,  and  relying  on  him  alone 
as  the  only  and  all-sufficient  Savior. 


[We  believe]  That  Election  is  the  gracious 
purpose  of  God,  according  to  which  he  [gra- 
ciously] regenerates,  sanctifies,  and  saves  sin- 
ners; that  being  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
free  agency  of  man,  it  comprehends  all  the 
means  in  connection  with  the  end;  that  it  is 
a  most  glorious  ^display  of  God's  sovereign 
goodness,  being  infinitely  [free,]  wise,  holy, 
and  unchangeable;  that  it  utterly  excludes 
boasting,  and  promotes  humility,  [love,] 
prayer,  praise,  trust  in  God,  and  active  imita- 
tion of  his  free  mercy;  that  it  encourages  the 


BAPTIST  BELIEFS.  89 

use  of  means  in  the  highest  degree;  that  it  is 
ascertained  by  its  effects  in  all  who  [trulyl 
believe  the  gospel;  [that  it]  is^ the  foundation 
of  Christian  assurance;  and  that  to  ascertain 
it  with  regard  to  ourselves,  demands  and  de- 
serves our  utmost  diligence. 

X.  OF  SANCTIFICATION. 

[Added  in  1853.] 

"We  believe  that  sanetificat-ion  is  the  process 
by  which,  according  to  the  will  of  God,  we  are 
made  partakers  of  his  holiness;  that  it  is  a 
progressive  work ;  that  it  is  begun  in  regenera- 
tion; and  that  it  is  carried  on  in  the  hearts 
of  believers  by  the  presence  and  power  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  the  Sealer  and  Comforter,  in  the 
continual  use  of  the  appointed  means — espe- 
cially the  Word  of  God,  self-examination,  self- 
denial,  watchfulness  and  prayer. 

XI.   OF   THE  PERSEVERANCE  OF  SAINTS. 

[We  believe]  That  such  only  are  real  believ- 
ers as  endure  unto  the  end ;  that  their  persever- 
ing attachment  to  Christ  is  the  grand  mark 
which  distinguishes  themi  from  mere  profes- 
sors; that  a  special  Providence  watches  over 
their  welfare;  and  [that]  they  are  kept  by  the 
power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation. 


90  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

ni.  [of  the]  harmony  of  the  law  and  the 

GOSPEL. 

[We  believe]  That  the  Law  of  God  is  the 
eternal  and  unchangeable  nile  of  'his  moral 
government;  that  it  is  holy,  just,  and  good; 
and  that  the  inability  which  the  Scriptures  as- 
cribe to  fallen  men  to  fulfill  its  precep4;s,  arises 
entirely  from  their  love  of  sin ;  to  deliver  them 
from  which,  and  to  restore  them  through  a 
Mediator  to  unfeigned  obedience  to  the  holy 
law,  is  one  great  end  of  the  Gospel,  and  of  the 
nueans  of  grace  connected  with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  visible  churtih. 

mi.  OF  a  gospel  church. 

[We  believe]  That  a  visible  church  of  Christ 
is  a  congregation  of  baptized  believers,  asso- 
ciated by  covenant  in  the  faith  and  fellowship 
of  the  Gospel;  observing  the  ordinances  of 
Christ;  governed  by  his  laws;  and  exercising 
the  gifts,  rights,  and  privileges  invited  in 
them  by  his  word ;  that  its  only  proper  officers 
are  bishops  or  pastors,  and  deaeons,  whose 
qualifications,  claims,  and  duties  are  defined  in 
the  Epistles  to  Timothy  and  Titus. 

XIV.  OF  BAPTISM  AND  THE  LORd's  SUPPER. 

[We  believe]  That  Christian  baptism  is  the 
immersion  of  a  believer  in  water,  in  the  name 
of  the  Father  [and]  Son,  and  Spirit,  to  show 
forth  in  a  solemn  and  beautiful  emblem,  our 


BA^  if  1ST  BELIEFS.  91 

faith  in  a  crucified,  buried,  and  risen 
Savior,  witli  its  purifying  power;  ^at  it  is  pre- 
requisite to  the  privileges  of  a  church  relation , 
and  to  the  Lord's  Supper,  in  which  the  mem' 
bers  of  the  church,  by  the  [sacred]  use  of  bread 
and  wine,  are  to  commemorato  together  the 
dying  love  of  Christ;  preceded  always  by  sol- 
emn self-examination. 

XV.   OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  SABBATH. 

[We  believe]  Thiat  the  first  day  of  the  week 
is  the  Lord's  day,  or  Christian  Sabbath ;  and  is 
to  be  kept  sacred  to  religious  purposes,  by  ab- 
staining from  all  secular  labor  and  [sinful] 
recreations;  by  the  devout  observance  of  all 
the  means  of  grace,  both  private  and  public; 
and  by  preparation  for  that  rest  which  re- 
maineth  for  the  people  of  God. 

XVI.   OF   CIVIL  GOVERNMENT. 

[We  believe]  That  civil  government  is  of 
divine  appointment,  for  the  interests  and  good 
order  of  human  society;  and  that  magistrates 
are  to  be  prayed  for,  conscientiously  honored, 
and  obeyed,  except  [only]  in  things  opposed 
to  tihe  will  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  is 
the  only  Lord  of  the  conscience,  and  the  Prince 
of  the  kings  of  the  earth. 


92  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

XTII.  OF  THE  EIGHTEOUS  AND  THE  WICKED. 

[We  believe]  That  there  is  a  radical  and 
essential  diffeirenoe  between  itiB  righteous  and 
the  wicked ;  that  such  only  as  through  faith  are 
justified  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and 
sanctified  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God,  are  truly 
righteous  in  his  esteem ;  while  all  such  as  con- 
tinue in  impenitence  and  unbelief  are  in  his 
eight  wicked,  and  under  the  curse;  and  this 
distinction  holds  among  men  both  in  and  after 
death. 

XVIII.  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  COME. 

[We  believe]  That  the  end  of  this  world  is 
approaching:  that  at  the  last  day  Christ  will 
descend  from  Heaven,  and  raise  the  dead^rom 
the  grave  to  final  retribution;  that  a  solemn 
separation  will  then  take  place ;  that  the  wicked 
will  be  judged  to  endless  punishment,  and  the 
righteous  to  endless  joy;  and  that  this  judg- 
ment will  fix  forever  the  final  state  of  men  in 
Heaven  or  hell,  on  principles  of  righteousness. 


A  CHURCH  COVENANT. 

BY  J.  NEWTON  BROWN. 

Having  been  led,  as  we  believe,  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  to  receive  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  our 
Savior,  and  on  the  profession  of  our  faith,  hav- 
ing been  baptized  in  the  name  of  our  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  do 
now  in  the  presence  of  God,  angels^  r^nd  this 
asserdbly,  most  solemnly  and  joyfully  enter 
into  covenant  with  one  another  as  one  body  in 
Christ. 

We  engage,  therefore,  by  the  aid  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  to  walk  together  in  Christian  love;  to 
strive  for  the  advancement  ol  this  church,  in 
knowledge,  'hohness,  and  comfort,  to  promote 
its  prosperity  and  spirituality;  to  sustain  its 
worship,  ordinances,  discipline  and  doctrines, 
to  contribute  cheerfully  and  regularly  to  the 
support  of  the  ministry,  the  expenses  of  the 
dhurch,  the  relief  of  the  poor,  and  the  spread 
of  the  Gospel  through  all  nations. 

"We  also  engage  to  maintain  family  and  se- 
cret devotion;  to  religiously  educate  our  chil- 


94  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

dren,  to  seek  the  salvation  of  our  kindred  and 
acquaintances,  to  walk  circumspectly  in  the 
world,  to  be  just  in  our  dealings,  faithful  in  our 
engagements  and  exemplary  in  our  deport- 
ment, to  avoid  all  tattling,  backbiting  and  ex- 
cessive anger,  to  abstain  from  the  sale  and  use 
of  intoxicating  drinks  as  a  beverage,  and  to  be 
zealous  in  our  efforts  to  advance  the  Kingdom 
of  our  Savior. 

We  further  engage  to  watch  over  one  an- 
other with  brotherly  love,  to  remember  each 
other  in  prayer,  to  aid  each  other  in  sickness 
and  distress,  to  cultivate  Giristian  sympathy  in 
feeling  and  courtesy  in  speech,  to  be  slow  to 
take  offense,  but  always  ready  for  reconcilia- 
tion, and  mindful  of  the  rules  of  our  Savior 
to  secure  it  without  delay. 

We  moreover  engage  that  when  we  remove 
from  this  place,  we  will  as  soon  as  possible 
unite  with  some  other  church,  w'here  we  can 
carry  out  the  spirit  of  this  covenant  and  the 
principles  of  God's  word. 


CHURCH  COVENANT 

BY  E.   T.  HISCOX. 

Having  been,  -as  we  trust,  brought  by  divine 
grace  to  embrace  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to 
give  ourselves  wholly  to  him,  we  do  now  sol- 
emnly and  joyfully  covenant  with  each  other 
to  walk  together  in  him,  with  brotherly  love, 
to  his  glory,  as  our  common  Lord.  We  do, 
therefore,  in  'his  'strength,  engage — 

That  we  will  exercise  a  Christian  watchful- 
ness over  each  other,  and  faithfully  warn,  ex- 
hort, and  'admonish  each  other  as  occasion  may 
require : 

That  we  will  not  forsake  the  assembling  of 
ourselves  together,  but  will  uphold  the  publiq 
worship  of  God  and  the  ordinances  of  (his 
house : 

That  we  will  not  omit  closet  and  family  re- 
ligion at  hiome,  nor  neglect  the  great  duty  of 
religiousily  training  our  children,  and  those  un- 
der our  care,  for  the  service  of  Christ  and  the 
enjoyment  of  Heaven: 

That,  as  we  are  the  light;  of  the  world,  and 
the  salt  of  the  earth,  we  will  seek  divine  aid,  to 


QQ  BAPTIST  BELIEFS. 

enable  us  to  deny  ungodliness  and  every  world- 
ly lust,  and  to  walk  circumspectly  in  the  world, 
tliat  we  may  win  the  souls  of  men : 

That  we  will  cheerfully  contribute  of  our 
property,  according  as  God  has  prospered  us, 
for  the  maintenance  of  a  faithful  and  evan- 
gelical ministry  among  us,  for  the  support  of 
the  poor,  and  to  spread  the  Gospel  over  the 
eart  h : 

That  we  will  in  all  conditions,  even  till 
d'cath,  strive  to  live  to  the  glory  of  'him  who 
hath  called  us  out  of  darkness  into  his  marvel- 
ous light. 

"And  may  the  God  of  peace,  who  brought 
again  from  the  dead  our  Lord  Jesus,  that  great 
Shepherd  of  the  ,'Sheep,  through  the  blood  of  the 
everlasting  covenant,  make  us  perfect  in  every 
good  work  to  do  his  will,  working  in  us  that 
which  is  well  pleasing  in  his  sight  through 
Jesus  Christ,  to  whom  be  glory,  for  ever  and 
ever.    Amen." 


W.B.C. 


DATE  DUE 


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61 


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PKINTKOiMU   ■. 


